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EDITED    BY 

HORACE  E.  SCUDDER. 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arciiive 

in  2008  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/californiafromcoOOroycricli 


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^merttan  ComnioitliieaItt|$t 


CALIFORNIA 


ROM  THE  CONQUEST  IN  1846  TO  THE  SECOND  VIGILANCE 

commito:e  in  san  francisco 


A  STUDY  OF  AMERICAN  CHARACTER 


JOSIAH   ROYCE 

ASSIS/'     T  PROFESSOR  OF   PHILOSOPHY   IN  HARVARD  COLLESB 


Von  Sonn'  und  Welten  weiss  ich  Nichts  zu  sagen. 
Ich  sehe  nur,  wie  sich  die  Menschen  plagen. 

Mephistopheks,  in  the  Prologue  to  Faust, 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND   COMPANY 


T^-n-n  ^^r^ 


r^" 


Ctepyright,  1886, 
Bt  JOSIAH  EOYCB. 


^- 


AU  rights  reserved. 


To 
MY  MOTHER, 

A  CALIFORNIA  PIONBER  OF  184a 


PREFACE. 


More  elaborate  and  learned  volumes  than  the  present 
one  have  recently  been  devoted  in  large  part  to  the  his- 
tory of  Spanish  and  Mexican  California  before  1846. 
This  book  is  concerned,  in  the  main,  only  with  American 
California,  and  with  that  only  during  the  early  and  ex- 
citing formative  years,  from  1846  to  1856.  This  his- 
tory of  the  beginnings  of  a  great  American  common- 
wealth has  seemed  to  the  author  sufficient  and  worthy 
to  occupy  the  whole  of  such  a  volume  as  the  present  one, 
in  view  both  of  the  interest  of  the  events  and  of  their 
vaXne  as  illustrating  American  life  and  character. 

The  purpose  has  been  throughout  to  write  from  the 
sources.  For  the  history  of  the  conquest  in  1846  offi- 
cial and  private  documents  of  original  value  have  been 
used  in  so  far  as  was  possible,  while,  as  the  reader  will 
%t  once  see,  the  interregnum,  the  early  mining  life,  and 
;he  history  of  San  Francisco  affairs  have  in  genera) 
been  described  directly  from  such  early  newspapers  as  I 
have  been  able  to  read,  the  later  testimony  of  pioneers 
ind  the  views  of  subsequent  historical  writers  being  usee 
iiere  mainly  to  c  leck,  to  complete,  or  to  explain  what 
;  le  early  newspapb^b  tell  us.  As  to  the  method  of  study 
employed,  the  social  condition  has  been  throughout  of 
more  interest  to  me  than  the  individual  men,  and  the 


viii  PREFAC^. 

men  themselves  of  morp  interest  m  their  fortunes, 
while  the  purpose  to  study  the  n  .xonal  character  has 
never  been  lost  sight  of  in  the  midst  of  even  the  mos' 
minute  examination  of  certain  obscure  events.  Nor  has 
a  certain  unity  in  the  whole  narrative  been  absent  from 
my  mind  as  I  have  written.  Through  all  the  complex 
facts  that  are  here  set  down  in  their  somewhat  confused 
order,  I  have  felt  running  the  one  thread  of  the  process 
whereby  a  new  and  great  community  first  came  to  a  true 
consciousness  of  itself.  The  story  begins  with  the  seem- 
ingly accidental  doings  of  detached  but  in  the  sequel 
vastly  influential  individuals,  and  ends  just  where  tlie 
individual  ceases  to  have  any  very  great  historical  signif- 
icance for  California  hfe,  and  where  the  community 
begins  to  be  what  it  ought  to  be,  viz.,  all  important  as 
against  individual  doings  and  interests. 

As  to  the  originality  of  the  various  parts  of  this  book, 
the  later  chapters  are  written  with  relatively  the  most 
complete  independence  of  fellow-workers.  In  the  first 
and  second  chapters,  and  in  part  in  the  third  chapter,  I 
have,  on  the  other  hand,  to  make  my  most  important 
acknowledgments  for  help  received.  To  Mr.  Hubert 
Howe  Bancroft  I  owe  the  very  great  privilege  of  a  free 
use  of  his  immense  collection  of  original  documents  on 
the  early  history,  especially  of  the  conquest, —  a  privilege 
of  which  I  took  advantage  during  the  whole  of  the  sum- 
mer vacation  of  1884.  And  from  both  Mr.  Bancroft 
and  his  able  collaborators  I  received,  during  all  this  time, 
frequent  and  most  friendly  oral  advice  about  the  use  of 
the  coUection  itself.  As  Mr.  Bancroft's  library  contains 
the  material  for  his  own  great  work,  now  in  process  of 
publication,  on  the  history  of  the  Pacific  States  of  North 
America,  I  feel  especially   indebted  to  the   generosity 


PR,^fACE.  IX 

which  so  freely  placed  this  original  material  at  my  dispo- 
sal in  advance  of  the  ^  blicatioi.,  jf  the  results  obtained 
by  Mr.  Bancroft  anSl  his  collaborators  themselves. 
Where  I  have  referred  to  these  original  documents,  I 
have  used  in  my  notes  the  abbreviation  B.  MS.  as  a  gen 
eral  name  for  all  of  them.  My  own  freedom  of  judg- 
ment I  have,  of  course,  sought  to  retain  throughout,  al- 
though I  am  much  indebted,  for  the  formation  of  many 
of  my  opinions  and  arguments,  to  the  suggestions  gained 
through  conversation  and  correspondence  with  Mr.  Ban- 
croft and  his  collaborators  concerning  some  such  dis- 
puted points  as  the  Gillespie  mission  of  1845-46,  the 
English  designs  on  California,  and  other  matters  of 
conquest  history.  But  the  results  that  I  have  here  writ- 
ten down  are,  as  they  stand,  always  my  own  final 
judgment  upon  all  the  evidence  that  I  could  obtain. 
"Where  they  are  mistaken^  I  therefore  am  alone  to  blame, 
and  not  Mr.  Bancroft's  documents.  Much  of  the  evi- 
dence presented  has  been,  moreover,  in  every  case  the 
result  of  my  own  independent  research,  carried  on  in 
Eastern  libraries ;  and  in  so  far  I  have  been  absolutely 
my  own  guide.  Of  the  able  and  exhaustive  volumes 
that  have  already  appeared  in  Mr.  Bancroft's  series  on 
the  history  of  California,  I  have  freely  used  in  my  pre- 
liminary sketch  the  portions  that  deal  with  colonial  Cali- 
fornia down  to  1840.  Beyond  this  I  have  had  no  access 
to  Mr.  Bancroft's  book,  and  anticipate,  of  course,  cor- 
rection of  some  of  my  facts  and  opinions  when  that  most 
elaborate  investigation  shall  appear.  I  feel  it  greatly  to 
my  disadvantage,  in  fact,  to  publish  my  own  volume  in 
advance  of  so  well-equipped  and  important  a  research  as 
the  work  ^t  Mr.  Bancroft  and  his  collaborators  is  sure 
to  pr<5Ve.     jL  ''egret  to  have  been  unable  to  make  any 


X  PREFACE. 

use  whatever  of  the  just  issued  History  of  California  by 
Mr.  Theodore  H.  Hittell,  which  appeared  too  late  to 
help  me. 

Among  general  libraries,  I  owe  most  to  the  library  of 
Harvard  College.  The  librarian,  Mr.  Winsor,  has  in 
particular  constantly  and  very  patiently  aided  me  with 
suggestions  and  criticisms,  and  the  library  authorities 
have  kindly  provided,  during  the  course  of  the  worl  ,  for 
the  purchase  of  much  material  without  which  the  •  k, 
especially  in  the  later  chapters,  would  have  been  j  ost 
impossible.  The  American  Antiquarian  Socie  at 
Worcester,  the  Massachusetts  State  Library  in  B(»  ton, 
the  Boston  Athenaeum  Library,  the  Mercantile  Library 
of  San  Francisco,  and  the  Library  of  the  California 
Pioneers  have  all  generously  answered  my  various  re- 
quests for  permission  to  use  material  in  their  possessi  )n, 
and  to  most  of  them  I  also  owe  much  for  free  oppor- 
tunities to  search  in  their  cjilections  after  material  not 
previously  known  or  catalogued. 

I  have  further  to  acknowledge  the  courtesy  of  the 
present  Secretary  of  State,  in  giving  me  the  use  of  im- 
portant oificial  documents  in  the  Department  archives 
at  Washington ;  and  also  the  kindness  of  the  present 
Secretaries  of  War  and  of  the  Navy,  as  shown  by  their 
prompt  and  explicit  answers  to  my  questions  concerning 
historical  documents  in  their  possession.  Mr.  R;  S. 
Watson  of  Milton,  Mass.,  and  Mr.  E.  S.  Osgood  of  C  "i- 
bridge,  have  very  kindly  helped  me  with  their  v  .- 
able  reminiscences  of  vigilance  committee  times.  Mr. 
T.  G.  Carey  of  Cambridge  has  put  at  my  disposal  '^*m- 
portant  MS.  material  of  his  own.  Pres.  D.  C.  Gih;.an 
of  Baltimore,  Mr.  Arthur  Rogers  of  San  Fr^tcV^'co,  end 
,  Ir.  William  Carey  Jones  of  Berkeley,  <^9[    ha^  Also 


PREFACE.  XI 

supplied  me  with  advice  and  with  valuable  printed  mat- 
ter. My  obligations  to  the  patience  and  courtesy  of 
General  and  Mrs.  Fremont  for  the  free  use  of  their  time 
in  discussing  matters  connected  with  the  conquest  in 
1846  will,  I  hope,  appear  amidst  all  the  very  plain  criti- 
cism of  General  Fremont's  views  and  conduct  to  which 
I  have  found  myself  driven  by  indubitable  historical 
evidejace.  To  Mr.  Charles  Shinn,  finally,  I  am  indebted 
for,  ^^  gift  of  advance  sheets  of  his  book  on  "  Mining 
Cai^  -^,"  whereby  I  was  much  furthered  in  my  work  on 
tha,    jubject. 

A.v/ord  in  conclusion  as  to  the  limitations  of  this  book. 
For  ihe  sake  of  preserving  as  far  as  possible  the  unity  of 
l^e  story,  I  have  had  to  omit  almost  all  reference  to 
fc,uch  matters  as,  belonging  to  the  history  of  California 
before  1856,  still  became  of  importance  only  in  view  of 
the  evvnts  of  later  years.  Such  matters  are  the  begin- 
nii\gs  of  literary  activity  rij\i  the  San  Francisco  com- 
•nunity  in  1854,  the  first  movements  towards  establish- 
ing university  education  in  the  State,  or,  again,  the  first 
phases  of  the  long  and  exciting  Chinese  agitation.  Even 
in  speaking  of  the  partisan  political  life,  I  have  had  to 
pass  over,  with  a  mere  mention,  events  and  persons  that 
in  a  history  of  the  next  ten  years  would  become  so  im- 
portant as  to  make  them  seem,  by  reflected  light,  much 
more  significant  even  before  1856  than  I  have  had  room 
to^c^use  them  to  appear.  I  trust  that  these  defects  will 
bi^  ^irdoned  by  a  generous  reader,  who  may  also  find 
my  doubtless  too  numerous  mistakes  of  detail  not  alto- 
gether inexcusable  in  a  book  that  deals  with  so  complex, 
xc;^ing,  and  ill-recorded  a  period  as  this,  and  that  is 
vSTitten,  after  all,  by  a  student  whose  professional  busi- 
n^ess  is  one  not  commonly  regarded  as  duly  conversant;^ 


Xil  PREFACE. 

with  this  actual  world  of  picks,  pans,  cradles,  and  vigi- 
lance committees.  What  I  could  do  in  a  labor  of  love 
I  have  done,  both  to  attain  accuracy  of  detail  and  to 
make  clear  the  meaning  of  a  truly  wonderful  historical 
process. 

Cambiudoe,  Mass.,  March  9,  1886. 


TABLE   OF  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

FAGS 

Introduction  :  The  Territory  and  the  Strangers         .  1 

I.  The  Land 3 

II.  Outlines  of  Older  California  History         ....  8 

III.  The  Californian  People 30 

IV.  The  Americans  in  California  before  the  Conquest     .        .  34 

CHAPTER  II. 

The  American  as  Conqueror:   The  Secret  Mission  and  • 

THE  Bear  Flag 48 

I.   The  Confidential  Agent,  and  the  Beginnings  of  War     .  50 

II.   The  Bear-Flag  Heroes 60 

III.  Sloat,  the  Administration,  and  the  Mystery  of  the  Secret 

Mission 84 

IV.  The  Mystery  as  formerly  expounded  by  Captain  Fre- 

mont's Friends 87 

V.   Californian  Hostility  as  a  Cause  for  War       ...  93 

VI.   The  Mystery  as  now  expounded  by  General  Fremont       .  Ill 

VII.   The  Mystery  deepens 123 

VIII.   Only  one  Dispatch  contains  the  Secret  Mission  .        .        .  129 

IX.   The  Mystery  as  expounded  by  the  one  Dispatch    .         .  133 

X.   Supplementary  Evidence  and  Summary    ....  141 

CHAPTER  III. 

The  Conquest  completed,  the  Interregnum,   and  the 

Birth  of  the  State     .        .        .        .        .        .        .161 

I.   The  Conquerors  and  their  Consciences    ....  152 

II.   Sloat,  the  Larkin  Intrigue,  and  the  English  Legend          .  157 

ITT.   The  Wolf  and  the  Lamb 174 


XIV  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

PAQB 

IV.   The  Revolt  and  the  Re-conquest        .        .        .        .        .  184 
V.  The  Conquerors  as  Rulers  and  as  Subjects;  Quarrels, 

Discontent,  and  Aspirations    .        .       ' .        .        .        .  198 

VI.  The  Beginnings  of  the  American  San  Francisco    .        .  213 

VII.   Gold,  New-Comers,  and  Illusions 220 

VIII.  The  Ways  to  the  New  Land 234 

IX.  The  Struggle  for  a  Constitution 246 

X.  The  Constitutional  Convention  and  its  Outcome  .        .  259 

CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Struggle  for  Order  :  Self-Government,  Good-Ju- 

MOR  AND  Violence  in  the  Mines     ....    271 
I.  The  Philosophy  of  California  History  during  the  Golden 

Days 272 

II.  The  Evolution  of  Disorder 278 

III.  Pan  and  Cradle  as  Social  Agents :  Mining  Society  in  the 

Summer  of  1848 *  .        .282 

IV.  Mining  Society  in  1849  and  1850,  and  the  Beginning  of 

Sluice-Mining 301 

V.  The  Spirit  of  the  Miners'  Justice  of  1851  and  1852 ;  the 

Miners  on  theii  own  Law 313 

VI.  Miners'  Justice  in  Action.  —  Characteristic  Scenes  and 

Incidents ^.,. ....  325 

VII.  A  Typical  History  of  a  Mining  CaiMp  in  1851-52  .        .  344 

VIII.   The  Warfare  against  the  Foreigners  ....  356 

IX.   The  Downieville  Lynching  of  July  5,  1851    ...  368 

X.  The  Attainment  of  Order 374 

CHAPTER  V. 

Social  Evolution  in  San  Francisco 377 

I.  The  New  Citv  and  the  Great  Fires        ....        378 

391 
398 
407 
417 
422 
432 
437 
448 


II.   The  Moral  Insanities  of  the  Golden  Days  . 

III.  Conservatism,  Churches,  and  Families  . 

IV.  Popular  Justice  in  February,  1851     . 
V.  The  First  Vigilance  Committee 

VI.   Social  Corruption  and  Commercial  Disaster 
VII.  The  New  Awakening  of  Conscience 
VIII.  The  Crisis  of  May,  1856    .... 

IX.  Popular  Vengeance  and  the  New  Movement 


X.  Perils  and  Triumphs  of  the  Great  Committee    .       .       .463 


TABLE   OF  CONTENTS.  XV 


CHAPTER  VI. 

PAGE 

Land-Titles  and  Politics .~~466 

I.   Early  Land  Troubles .467 

II.   The  Native  Population  and  the  Later  Struggle  for  their 

Land 480 

III.  Early  Political  Conflicts 491 

IV.  Conclusion 499 


OALIFOEWIA. 


CHAPTER  I. 

introduction:  the  territory  and  the  strangers. 

This  book  is  meant  to  help  the  reader  towards  an  un- 
derstanding of  two  things :  namely,  the  modern  Ameri- 
can State  of  California,  and  our  national  character  as 
displayed  in  that  land. 

For  both  purposes  the  period  of  California  history 
between  1846  and  1856,  between  the  beginnings  of  our 
national  occupation  of  the  territory  and  the  close  of  the 
Second  Vigilance  Committee  of  San  Francisco,  is  espe- 
cially instructive.  This  is  the  period  of  excitement,  of 
trial,  and  of  rapid  transformation.  Everything  that  has 
since  happened  in  California,  or  that  ever  will  happen! 
there,  so  long  as  men  dwell  in  the  land,  must  be  deeply! 
affected  by  the  forces  of  local  life  and  society  that  then| 
took  their  origin.  And,  for  the  understanding  of  our 
American  national  character  in  some  of  its  most  signif- 
icant qualities,  this  life  of  surprises  and  oi  searching 
moral  ordeals  has  a  still  too  little  appreciated  value. 

The  American  community  in  early  California  fairly 
represented,  as  we  shall  see,  the  average  national  culture 
and  character.  But  no  other  part  of  our  land  was  ever 
80  rapidly  peopled  as  was  California  in  the  first  golden 


2  CALIFORNIA. 

days.  Nowhere  else  were  we  Americans  more  affected 
than  here,  in  our  lives  and  conduct,  by  the  feeling  that 
we  stood  in  the  position  of  conquerors  in  a  new  land. 
Nowhere  else,  again,  were  we  ever  before  so  long  forced 
by  circumstances  to  live  at  the  mercy  of  a  very  wayward 
chance,  and  to  give  to  even  our  most  legitimate  business 
a  dangerously  speculative  character.  Nowhere  else  were 
we  driven  so  hastily  to  improvise  a  government  for  a 
large  body  of  strangers ;  and  nowhere  else  did  fortune 
so  nearly  deprive  us  for  a  little  time  of  our  natural  de- 
ivotion  to  the  duties  of  citizenship.  We  Americans 
Itherefore  showed,  ia  early  California,  new  failings  and 
Inew  strength.  We  exhibited  a  novel  degree  of  careless- 
ness and  overhastiness,  an  extravagant  trust  in  luck,  a 
previously  unknown  blindness  to  our  social  duties,  and 
an  indifference  to  the  rights  of  foreigners,  whereof  we 
cannot  be  proud.  But  we  also  showed  our  best  national 
traits,  —  traits  that  went  far  to  atone  for  our  faults.  As 
a  body,  our  pioneer  community  in  California  was  per- 
sistently cheerful,  energetic,  courageous,  and  teachable. 
In  a  few  years  it  had  repented  of  its  graver  faults,  it 
had  endured  with  charming  good  humor  their  severest 
penalties,  and  it  was  ready  to  begin  with  fresh  devotion 
the  work  whose  true  importance  it  had  now  at  length 
learned  —  the  work  of  building  a  well-organized,  perma- 
nent, and  progressive  State  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  In 
this  work  it  has  been  engaged  ever  since,  with  fortunes 
that  always,  amid  the  most  remarkable  changes,  have 
preserved  a  curious  likeness  to  the  fortunes  of  the  early 
days,  and  that,  in  numerous  and  recent  instances,  have 
led  to  a  more  or  less  noteworthy  and  complete  repetition 
of  certain  early  trials,  blunders,  sins,  penalties,  virtues, 
and  triumphs. 


THE  TERRITORY  AND  THE  STRANGERS.  3 

This  introductory  chapter  will  aim  to  supply  the  chief 
facts  necessary  for  an  understanding  of  the  ten  years  of 
busy  life  whose  social  aspects  we  are  hereafter  to  ex- 
amine. In  the  later  chapters  we  shall  endeavor  to  dwell 
with  especial  detail  upon  such  facts,  external,  social,  or 
individual,  as  illustrate  and  explain  the  history  of  Amer- 
ican civilization  in  the  State  of  California. 

I.     THE   LAND.  ^ 

The  general  topographical  outlines  of  California  are 
shown  at  once  by  the  map.  If  one  excludes  the  earliest 
settled  and  now  very  richly  productive  coast  region 
south  of  Santa  Barbara,  the  barren  interior  regions  of 
San  Bernardino  County,  and  of  the  adjoining  terri- 
tory to  the  southward,  the  other  barren  strip  of  land  in 
Mono  and  Inyo  counties,  east  of  the  Sierras  and  south 
of  Mono  Lake,  and,  finally,  the  great  mountainous  coast 
and  interior  lands  of  the  extreme  north,  one  has  still 
left  the  main  body  of  the  State  :  namely,  the  central 
Coast  Range,  the  great  valley  of  the  two  rivers  (the 
Sacramento  and  San  Joaquin),  and  the  main  chain  of 
the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains.  This  chief  and  central 
portion  of  the  State  shows  to  the  Pacific  Ocean  a  gener- 
ally bold  and  rugged  coast-line,  with  successive  ranges 
of  hills,  nearly  parallel  to  the  coast,  rising  in  some  places 
to  the  height  of  three  or  four  thousand  feet.  North  of 
the  latitude  of  Monterey,  this  coast  is  often  daily  ob- 
scured in  summer  by  cold  and  persistent  fogs,  which, 
climbing  the  Coast  Range,  or  projecting  in  long  gray 
tongues  through  the  gaps  of  the  range,  finally  disappear, 
as  one  goes  inward,  in  the  dry  and  cloudless  summer  air 
of  the  great  interior  valley.  In  this  level  and  fertile  val- 
ley the  two  rivers  —  the  one  rising  far  to  the  north,  near 


4  ^  CALIFORNIA. 

Mount  Shasta,  the  other  in  the  Sierras  of  Fresno  County 
—  flow  through  their  opposing  courses,  and,  meeting  at 
last,  discharge  their  waters  by  the  two  intermediate  bays 
into  the  main  body  of  the  great  San  Francisco  Bay,  and 
so,  through  the  Golden  Gate,  into  the  ocean.  The  two 
rivers,  as  they  flow,  receive  from  numerous  tributaries 
the  waters  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  range,  which  bounds 
the  great  valley  on  the  east.  The  mountains  of  this 
range  rise  very  gradually,  at  first  in  gently  sloping  and 
irregularly  disposed  lines  of  foot-hills,  to  the  rugged 
and  snowy  highest  ridges,  which  vary  in  elevation  from 
nine  or  ten  thousand  to  twelve  or  even  fourteen  thou- 
sand feet  above  sea  level.  Through  the  foot-hills  the 
westward-flowing  rivers  have  worn  vast  deep  canons, 
whose  scenery  has  a  character  peculiar  to  this  range. 
East  of  the  summit,  there  is  a  rapid  descent,  through 
steep  and  glacier-worn,  but  now  often  nearly  dry  and 
always  very  wild  gorges,  to  the  broken  plateaus  of  the 
'desert  region.  Not  a  drop  of  the  water  that  flows  down 
ftliis  eastern  slope  of  the  great  chain  reaches  the  sea,  all 
being  lost  in  "  sinks,"  or  in  salt  lakes.  The  largest  of  the 
eastward-flowing  rivers  are  but  great  mountain  torrents. 
The  great  central  valley  and  mountain  region  of 
California,  thus  roughly  outlined,  is  a  country  full  of 
tell-tale  landscapes,  that  show  at  a  glance  to  the  trav- 
eler the  general  topographical  structure  of  the  whole 
land.  In  the  gently  mountainous  regions  of  even  the 
more  rugged  of  our  Eastern  States,  one  may  wander  for 
many  days,  and  see  many  picturesque  or  imposing  land- 
scapes, without  getting  any  clear  notion  of  the  complex 
water  system  of  the  country  through  which  he  journeys. 
In  most  such  hilly  regions,  if  he  climbs  to  some  prom- 
ising summit,  hoping  to  command  therefrom  a  general 


THE  TERRITORY  AND   THE  STRANGERS.  5 

view  of  the  land  about  him,  he  often  sees  in  the  end 
nothing  but  a  collection  of  gracefully  curving  hills  sim- 
ilar to  the  one  that  he  has  chosen.  Winding  valleys 
divide  these  hills  with  their  endlessly  complex  and  often- 
broken  lines.  He  gets  no  sense  of  the  ground  plan  of 
the  region.  It  seems  a  mass  of  hills,  and  that  is  all. 
Painfully,  with  the  aid  of  his  map,  he  identifies  this  or 
that  landmark,  and  so  at  last  comprehends  his  sur- 
roundings, which,  after  all,  he  never  really  sees.  But, 
in  the  typical  central  Californian  landscape,  as  viewed 
from  any  commanding  summit,  the  noble  frankness  of  ^ 
nature  shows  one  at  a  glance  the  vast  plan  of  the 
country.  From  hills  only  eighteen  hundred  or  two 
thousand  feet  high,  on  the  Contra  Costa  side  of  San 
Francisco  Bay,  you  may  on  any  clear  day  see,  to  the 
westward,  the  blue  line  of  the  ocean,  the  narrow  Golden 
Gate,  the  bay  itself  at  your  feet,  the  rugged  hills  of 
Marin  County  beyond,  and  the  smoky  outlines  of  San 
Francisco  south  of  the  Gate  ;  you  may  follow  with  the 
eye,  to  the  southward,  the  far-reaching  lower  arm  of  the 
great  bay,  and  may  easily  find  the  distant  range  of 
the  Santa  Cruz  Mountains ;  while,  to  the  eastward  and 
northward,  you  may  look  over  the  vast  plains  of  the 
interior  valley,  and  dwell  upon  the  great  blue  masses  of 
the  Sierra  Nevada  rising  far  beyond  them,  and  culmi- 
nating in  the  snowy  summits  that  all  summer  long 
would  gleam  across  to  you  through  the  hot  valley  haze. 
From  the  Sierras  themselves  you  might  see  the  reverse 
of  the  picture.  In  the  upper  foot-hills,  where  I  spent 
my  childhood,  we  used  to  live  in  what  seemed  a  very 
open  country,  with  not  many  rugged  hills  near  us,  with 
the  frowning  higher  mountains  far  to  the  eastward, 
and  with  a  pleasant  succession  of  grassy  meadows  and 


>i 


6  CALIFORNIA. 

of  gentle  wooded  slopes  close  about  us.  But,  just  be- 
yond the  western  horizon  that  the  darkly  wooded  hills 
bounded,  there  loomed  up  from  a  great  distance  two 
or  three  sharp-pointed  summits  that  were  always  of 
a  deep  blue  color.  These  we  knew  to  belong  to  the 
Coast  Range;  and  the  far-ofE  ocean  was,  we  fancied, 
rolling  just  at  the  western  base  of  these  peaks.  If  now 
we  walked  a  mile  or  two  to  some  higher  hill-top,  the 
whole  immense  river  valley  itself  seemed,  at  the  end  of 
our  walk,  to  flash  of  a  sudden  into  existence  before  our 
eyes,  with  all  its  wealth  of  shining  and  winding  streams, 
with  the  "Three  Buttes,"  near  Marysville,  springing 
up  like  young  giants  from  the  midst  of  the  plain,  and 
with  the  beautiful,  long,  and  endlessly  varied  blue  line 
of  the  Coast  Range  bounding  the  noble  scene  on  the 
Wcst.  Of  course,  what  we  could  actually  see  of  the 
great  valley  was  but  a  very  little  part  if  compared  to 
the  whole ;  but  the  system  upon  which  this  interior  re- 
gion of  the  State  was  planned,  we  as  children  could  not 
fail  to  comprehend  both  very  early  and  very  easily. 

The  Coast  Range  is  broken  down  at  one  point  to  give 
an  entrance  from  the  ocean  through  the  Golden  Gate 
into  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco,  upon  the  west  shore  of 
which,  as  we  have  just  seen,  lies  San  Francisco  itself. 
North  of  the  Gate  the  Coast  Range  forms  a  bolder  and 
more  rugged  coast-line  than  is  the  case  towards  the 
south.  Almost  directly  east  of  San  Francisco  rises  be- 
yond the  Contra  Costa  hills  the  blue  summit  of  Monte 
Diablo,  the  most  noteworthy  landmark  of  the  Coast 
Range  for  all  the  central  portion  of  the  State.  From 
the  summit  of  this  peak,  at  an  elevation  of  some  3,800 
feet,  one  can  best  of  all  view  the  portion  of  the  State 
with  which  the  early  American  life  had  most  to  do. 


THE  TERRITORY  AND    THE  STRANGERS.  7 

The  climate  of  California  is  too  generally  known  now 
to  need  special  description  here.  In  the  dry  season, 
from  June  to  September  or  October,  there  is  a  local 
climate  close  along  the  coast  itself,  from  about  the  lati- 
tude of  Santa  Cruz  northward,  which,  by  reason  of 
daily  northwest  winds  and  fogs,  is  as  invigorating  to  all 
healthy  people  as  it  is  disagreeable.  One  leaves  San 
Francisco  in  summer,  if  at  all,  not  to  enjoy  a  cool  hol- 
iday away  from  the  city's  oppressive  heat,  but  to  get 
into  a  warmer  air.  All  the  southern  half  of  the  State 
and  all  the  interior  valleys  enjoy,  during  the  dry  sea- 
son, clear  and  hot  days,  with  cool  and  very  restful 
nights.  The  rainy  season  is  everywhere  somewhat  te- 
dious, by  reason  of  its  two  or  three,  or  perchance  more, 
very  long  and  heavy  southwest  rain-storms ;  but,  in  the 
intervals  of  these  long  rd-ins,  if,  as  commonly  chances, 
no  noticeable  "  cold  wave  "  weather  follows  them  (and 
so  no  example  of  the  occasional  bitter  northers),  then 
indeed  one  has  the  true  chance  to  enjoy  nature.  Then 
one  sees,  perhaps  in  January  or  February,  the  clearest 
of  skies,  and  feels  the  most  perfect  of  airs.  The  new 
grass  springs  on  every  hill,  the  song-birds  are  count- 
less, and,  by  April  and  May,  the  vast  fields  of  wild- 
flowers  are  in  full  bloom.  But  April  and  May  are  the 
spendthrift  months  of  wealthy  nature.  A  few  golden 
weeks  of  absolute  freedom  from  winds  and  rains,  of 
warmth  and  of  sunshine,  give  place  at  last  to  the  long 
sleep  of  the  dry  season,  rainless  also,  and,  in  the  in- 
terior, as  windless  and  as  dreamy  as  the  climate  of 
Lotus  Land. 

The  first  effect  of  the  Californian  climate  is  to  im- 
prove the  general  health  of  nearly  all  new-comers,  un- 
less, indeed,  being  afflicted  with  pulmonary  troubles, 


8  CALIFORNIA. 

they  should  find  the  windy  northern  and  centyal  coast 
climate  in  the  dry  season  too  severe  for  them.  Then, 
however,  the  interior  valleys,  or  the  southern  coast,  are 
still  open  to  them,  and  are  very  healthful.  But  one 
secondary  effect  of  the  climate  is  indeed  not  so  favor- 
able for  any  one,  in  that  the  comparative  evenness  of 
the  successive  seasons  prompts  active  people  to  work  too 
[steadily,  to  skip  their  holidays,  and,  by  reason  of  their 
very  enjoyment  of  life,  to  wear  out  their  constitutions 
[with  overwork.  Here  is  a  fact  of  considerable  impor- 
tance for  the  understanding  of  California  civilization.  In 
early  days,  moreover,  by  reason  of  the  utter  carelessness 
of  the  mining  population,  fevers  and  dysentery  were  very 
prevalent  in  the  Sacramento  Valley  and  in  the  foot-hills 
of  the  Sierra.  But  people  who  so  ate,  drank,  and  lived 
as  many  of  the  miners  chose  to  do,  hardly  deserve  com- 
miseration for  their'  well-earned  diseases,  even  as  the  cli- 
mate deserves  but  little  blame  therefor.  On  the  whole, 
save  in  these  careless  early  years,  the  country  has  been 
remarkably  free  from  epidemics.  Of  the  great  present 
material  resources  of  the  land  there  is  no  need  to  speak 
here.     We  deal  with  the  men. 

n.   OUTLINES   OF   OLDER   CALIFORNIA   HISTORY. 

The  settlements  of  Spanish  missionaries  within  the 
present  limits  of  the  State  of  California  date  from  the 
first  foundation  of  San  Diego  in  1769.  The  missions 
that  were  later  founded  north  of  San  Diego  were,  with 
the  original  establishment  itself,  for  a  time  known  merely 
by  some  collective  name,  such  as  the  Northern  Missions.^ 
But  later  the  name  California,  already  long  since  ap- 
plied to  the  country  of  the  peninsular  missions  to  the 
1  H.  H.  Bancroft,  History  of  California,  vol.  i.  p.  67. 


THE  TERRITORY  AND   THE  STRANGERS.  9 

southward,  was  extended  to  the  new  land,  with  various 
prefixes  or  qualifying  phrases  ;  and  out  of  these  the  de- 
finitive name  Alta  California  at  last  came,  being  ap- 
plied to  our  present  country  during  the  whole  period  of 
the  Mexican  Republican  ownership.  As  to  the  origin  of 
the  name  California,  no  serious  question  remains  that 
this  name,  as  first  applied,  between  1535  and  1539,  to 
a  portion  of  Lower  California,  was  derived  from  an  old 
printed  romance,  the  one  which  Mr.  Edward  Everett 
Hale  rediscovered  in  1862,  and  from  which  he  drew 
this  now  accepted  conclusion.  For,  in  this  romance,  the 
nameJgaJifoJcnia  was  already  before  1520  applied  to  a 
fabulous  island,  described  as  near  the  Indies  and  also 
"  very  near  the  Terrestrial  Paradise."  Colonists  whom 
Cortes  brought  to  the  newly  discovered  peninsula  in 
1535,  and  who  returned  the  next  year,  may  have  been 
the  first  to  apply  the  name  to  this  supposed  island,  on 
which  they  had  been  for  a  time  resident.^ 

The  coast  of  Upper  California  was  first  visited  during 
the  voyage  of  the  explorer  Juan  Cabrillo  in  1542-43. 
Several  landings  were  then  made  on  the  coast  and  on 
the  islands,  in  the  Santa  Barbara  region.  Cabrillo 
himself  died  during  the  expedition  (on  January  3, 1543), 
and  the  voyage  was  continued  by  his  successor,  Ferralo, 
who  sailed  as  far  north  as  42°.  The  whole  undertaking 
resulted  in  some  examination  of  the  coast-line  as  far  as 
Cape  Mendocino,  and  in  a  glimpse  of  the  native  popu- 
lation that  lived  along  the  southern  shores  of  the  pres- 
ent State.'' 

In  1579  Drake's  famous  visit  took  place.    During  the 

1  H.  H.  Bancroft,  vol.  i.  p.  66  ;  E.  E.  Hale,  Amer.  Antiquarian 
8oc.  Proceedings  for  1862  ;  Atlantic  Monthly,  vol.  xiii.  p.  265. 
-  Bancroft,  vol.  i.  pp.  69-81. 


10  CALIFORNIA. 

latter  half  of  June  and  nearly  the  whole  of  July,  he 
remained  in  what  "  The  World  Encompassed  "  calls  a 
"  convenient  and  fit  harbour  "  (about  38°  30'),  where 
the  ship  was  grounded  for  repairs,  and  where  the  expe- 
dition had  considerable  intercourse  with  the  natives. 
One  of  the  accounts  complains,  in  extravagant  fashion, 
of  the  chilly  air  and  of  the  fogs  of  the  region,  and,  in 
general,  we  get  information  from  the  accounts  about 
the  "  white  banks  and  cliffs,  which  lie  toward  the  sea," 
and  hear  about  what  we  now  know  as  the  Farallones, 
the  rocky  islets  that  lie  just  outside  what  we  call  the 
Golden  Gate.  While  the  other  details  of  the  stories,  as 
given,  are  obviously  in  large  part  imaginary,  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  Drake  did  land  near  this  point  on  the 
coast,  and  did  find  a  passable  harbor,  where  he  stayed 
some  time.  It  is,  however,  almost  perfectly  sure  that  he 
did  not  enter  or  observe  the  Golden  Gate,  and  that  he 
got  no  sort  of  idea  of  the  existence  of  the  great  Bay ; 
while  for  the  rest,  it  is  and  must  remain  quite  imcertain 
what  anchorage  he  discovered,  although  the  chances  are 
in  favor  of  what  is  now  called  Drake's  Bay,  under  Point 
Reyes.  This  result  of  the  examination  of  the  evidence 
about  Drake's  voyage  is  now  fairly  well  accepted,  al- 
though some  people  will  always  try  to  insist  that  Drake 
discovered  our  Bay  of  San  Francisco.^ 

The  name  San  Francisco  was  probably  applied  to  a 
port  on  this  coast  for  the  first  time  by  Cermenon,  who 
in  a  voyage  from  the  Philippines  in  1595  ran  ashore, 
while  exploring  the  coast  near  Point  Reyes.  It  is  now, 
however,  perfectly  sure  that  neither  he  nor  any  other 
Spanish  navigator  before  1769  applied  this  name  to  our 

1  On  this  voluminous  controversy  I  pretend  to  no  sort  of  independent 
•pinion.    See  Bancroft^  vol.  i.  pp.  81-94,  for  both  result  and  referencea 


j^  fn-ij 


TEE  TERRITORY  AND   THE  STRANGERS.        17 

Although  commercial  intercourse  with  foreigners  was 
forbidden  in  the  land,  still,  towards  the  close  of  the  old 
century  and  the  opening  of  the  new,  one  finds  some  for- 
eign attention  attracted  to  California.  The  first  foreign 
visitor  had  been  the  Frenchman,  La  Perouse,  in  1786. 
In  1792  Vancouver  had  visited  the  coast.  In  1796  the 
first  American  ship,  the  Otter,  of  Boston,  had  appeared 
at  Monterey,  and  had  obtained  wood  and  water  for 
her  voyage.  Both  La  Perouse  and  Vancouver  had  de- 
scribed the  land  and  the  missions,  the  latter  with  some 
animadversions  on  the  defenseless  state  of  the  country, 
and  with  expressions  of  surprise  that  so  very  small  a 
force  of  soldiers  could  keep  in  awe  so  many  thousands 
of  natives.  In  1806  the  first  Russian  ship  came  to  the 
port  of  San  Francisco,  from  Sitka,  under  the  direction 
of  Rezanof,  an  official  of  high  position,  who  had  gone 
to  Sitka  as  inspector  of  the  establishments  there.  His 
purpose  at  the  moment  was  to  purchase  suppUes  for  the 
now  .nearly  starving  colony  at  Sitka.  Although  such 
transactions  with  foreigners  were  forbidden  to  the  Cal- 
ifornians,  still,  after  long  and  vain  negotiations  with 
Governor  Arrillaga,  and  with  the  commandant  of  the 
presidio,  Argiiello,  Rezanof  at  last  gained  his  commer- 
cial purpose  by  dint  of  making  successful  love  to  the 
beautiful  daughter  of  ArgiieUo,  the  Dona  Concepcion 
of  the  well-known  and  highly  romantic  tale  that  has 
since  grown  up  out  of  this  incident.  Rezanof  was 
actually  betrothed,  in  the  end,  to  the  fair  young  daugh- 
ter ;  and  when  he  set  out,  with  his  purchases  made,  it 
was  under  the  solemn  promise  to  return  and  marry  his 
new  beloved  as  soon  as  possible.  He  died,  however, 
while  on  the  way  across  Siberia,  during  his  return  to 
St.   Petersburg.     The   story,  told   in  several   versions. 


18  CALIFORNIA, 

and  immortalized  in  Mr.  Bret  Harte's  best  poem,  has 
won  many  tears.  Rezanof  himself  describes  the  affair, 
in  his  reports,  as  a  purely  business-like  stroke  of  diplo- 
macy, whereby  he  gained  the  decisive  official  help  of 
the  Argiiello  family.  Whether  he  was  sincere  in  his 
love  or  not.  Dona  Concepcion  undoubtedly  was  in  hers. 
She  died,  as  nun,  at  Benicia,  in  1857.'^ 

This  first  Russian  visit  was  followed,  in  1812,  by  the 
founding  of  a  Russian  colony  under  the  auspices  of  the 
Fur  Company  at  "  Ross,"  as  the  new-comers  named 
their  own  settlement,  which  was  on  the  coast,  about 
eighteen  miles  above  Bodega  Bay,  and  a  little  north  of 
the  mouth  of  Russian  River.  Here  the  company  built 
a  fort,  negotiated  and  traded  with  the  natives,  secured 
from  the  latter  what  the  Russians  later  affected  to 
consider  a  title  to  the  land,  and  remained  in  the  place 
for  some  thirty  years,  until  1841.  The  colony  was 
especially  useful  as  a  trading  and  supply  station  for 
the  Fur  Company.  Its  inhabitants  numbered,  as  time 
went  on,  from  150  to  400,  of  mixed  Russian,  Aleutian, 
and,  later,  California  Indian  blood  ;  the  force  was  al- 
ways under  the  control  of  military  officers,  and  was 
kept  in  strict  discipline.  Notwithstanding  the  numer- 
ous official  obstacles  in  their  way,  the  Russians  managed 
to  get  a  good  deal  of  grain  and  provisions,  by  trade, 
from  the  Spaniards,  and,  later,  raised  some  grain  them- 
selves. These  supplies  were  sent  to  various  Russian 
northern  stations.  But  in  the  end  the  settlement 
proved  a  failure  for  its  purposes,  and  was  abandoned. 
A  colony,  in  the  strict  sense,  this  establishment  never 
became,  and  such  plans  of  territorial  acquisition  as  origi* 

1  The  complete  account  from  the  sources  is  ia  Bancroft,  vol.  ii 
pp.  64,  tqg. 


THE   TERRITORY  AND   THE  STRANGERS.        19 

nally  had  to  do  with  its  foundation  were  never  devel- 
^oped  to  any  noteworthy  result.^  The  establishment 
excited,  from  the  first,  just  indignation  and  considerable 
apprehension  on  the  part  of  the  Spanish  authorities,  and, 
later,  of  the  Mexican  authorities ;  but  there  was  never 
an  open  collision. 

"With  the  political  events  of  the  Spanish  rule,  and 
with  the  life  of  the  missions  during  their  remaining 
years  of  prosperity  in  the  early  part  of  our  century,  we 
have  no  further  need  to  deal.  The  situation  of  the 
whole  country  was  of  course  much  altered  when  the  in- 
dependence of  Mexico  was  proclaimed  in  California,  at 
the  beginning  of  1822.  There  was,  indeed,  no  active 
resistance  thought  of.  In  March  arrived  the  news  of 
the  success  of  Iturbide's  imperial  regency.  /'-.On  the  9th 
of  April  a  junta  met  at  Monterey,  composed  of  the  last 
Spanish  governor.  Sola,  and  of  the  principal  officers 
present  in  the  territory.  This  body  passed  resolutions 
of  acquiescence  in  the  new  government,  and  took  the 
prescribed  oath.^  A  commissioner,  sent  from  Mexico 
to  see  that  the  new  order  of  things  was  properly  intro- 
duced into  California,  brought  into  existence  the  first 
provincial  diputaoion  or  legislature,  in  November  of  that 
year.  This  body  was  called  upon  by  the  commissioner 
to  elect  a  governor,  and  in  November  chose  Don  Luis 
Arguello  as  the  first  of  the  series  of  Mexican  govern- 
ors. 
3t  >  The  history  of  California  under  Mexican  rule  falls 
into  two  unequal  periods :  the  one  of  comparative  quiet, 
extending  to  1831,  the  second  being  characterized  by 

1  See  in  particular,  on  the  life  and  industries  of  this  settlement^ 
Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  pp.  629,  sqq. 

2  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  451. 


H( 


A\ 


20  CALIFORNIA. 

the  rapid  growth  of  a  local  Californian  patriotism  and 
by  political  feuds.  Throughout  both  these  periods  the 
little  province  had  to  a  great  extent  the  management  of 
its  own  affairs,  and  its  subjection  to  Mexico  proved  at 
most  times  and  in  most  respects  a  very  imperfect  sub- 
jection. Foreign  trade  was  now  permitted,  under  rather 
harassing  restrictions,  of  which  the  most  significant  was 
an  enormously  high  tariff.  The  population  grew  some- 
what slowly.  Mr.  Bancroft's  list  of  inhabitants,  at  the 
close  of  the  first  volume  of  his  "California,"  includes 
some  1,700  names  of  male  settlers,  soldiers,  etc.,  of 
Spanish  blood,  who  are  actually  on  record  as  having 
lived  in  the  province  at  some  time  between  1769  and 
1800.  The  recorded  and  estimated  aggregate  white 
population  was,  in  the  year  1790,  990 ;  in  the  year 
1800,  IJBOO  ;  and  in  the  year  1810,  2,130.i  Under  the 
Mexican  rule,  the  white  population  had  increased  by 
1830  to  4,250 ;  and  by  1840  to  5,780.  Between  this 
period  and  the  conquest,  as  I  suppose,  the  white  popula- 
tion may  have  been  further  increased  by  some  1,500  or 
2,000  souls.  It  was  popularly  estimated  at  the  moment 
as  somewhere  between  8,000  and  12,000  in  1846. 

As  for  the  general  course  of  events  4uring  the  Mexi- 
can period,  one  has  first  to  note  the  very  early  change 
from  the  imperial  to  the  republican  form  of  government 
in  Mexico,  —  a  change  which  the  friars  in  Calif otnia 
regarded  with  great  displeasure  and  foreboding,^  and 
which  they  opposed  by  word  of  mouth  to  an  extent  to 
which  they  had  not  opposed  the  change  from  Spanish 
sovereignty  that  was  introduced  by  the  imperial  re' 
gency.     Their  leaders  refused,  in  1825,  to  take  the  pre* 

1  Bancroft,  vol  ii.  p.  158. 

2  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  517  ;  vol.  iii.  pp.  16,  »q(g. 


THE  TERRITORY  AND   THE  STRANGERS.        21 

scribed  oath  to  the  republic,  and  caused  thereby  some 
trouble  to  the  civil  authorities  ;  but  the  only  effect  was 
slightly  to  increase  the  difficulties  of  local  government, 
and,  in  the  sequel,  to  widen  the  breach  between  the  old 
clerical  order  of  things  and  the  new  order  that  must 
inevitably  spring  up  under  Mexican  dominion.  From 
1826  to  1830  the  province  quietly  and  gradually  grew 
"  toward  the  Mexican  ideal  of  republicanism  and  the 
secularization  of  the  missions,"  to  quote  Mr.  Bancroft's 
words. ^  The  governor  first  sent,  in  the  Mexican  repub- 
lican interest,  to  take  charge  of  California  was  Echean- 
di'a,  who  came  in  October,  1825;  but  the  home  gov- 
ernment undertook  little  further,  in  those  years,  for  the 
good  of  California,  unless  sending  a  few  convicts  to  the 
land,  in  February,  1830,  be  considered  such  an  under- 
taking. In  1829  a  revolt  of  some  unpaid  soldiers  at 
Monterey,  assisted  by  some  native  Californians,  under- 
took to  put  the  country  into  native  Californian  hands, 
while  professing,  for  form's  sake,  firm  allegiance  to  the 
central  Mexican  government,  and  alleging,  as  justifica- 
tion of  the  rising,  abuse  of  authority  on  the  part  of 
Echeandia,  whose  headquarters  were  in  the  south.  The 
leader  of  the  revolt  was  a  convict  ranchero,  Solis  by 
name;  but  the  movement  gained  no  foothold  in  the 
south,  and,  after  a  bloodless  pretense  at  a  conflict  near 
Santa  Barbara,  the  rebels  under  Solis  fled  back  again 
northwards  to  Monterey,  only  to  find  that  town  al- 
ready turned  against  them.  The  movement  now,  of 
course,  entirely  collapsed,  and  Echeandia  remained  for 
the  time  in  undisputed  power.  His  work  as  governor 
was  partly  devoted  to  the  beginnings  of  the  Mexican 

1  Vol.  iii.  p.  31.    On  Governor  Echeandia' s  career  in  California,  see 
tnaps.  ii.-vi.  of  the  same  volume. 


22  CALIFORNIA. 

plan  for  the  secularization  of  the  missions  of  California. 
The  original  intention  of  Spain  had  been,  as  we  know, 
to  use  the  missions  as  stepping-stones,  over  which  to 
pass  to  the  true  civilization  of  the  new  land.  The  en- 
tire failure  of  the  missions  effectively  to  civilize  their 
neophytes  or  to  prepare  them  for  citizenship  could  not 
prevent,  in  republican  Mexico,  the  effort  to  bring  to  an 
end  the  experiment  that  had  failed  so  completely.  In 
1826  Echeandia  issued  a  decree  for  the  partial  emanci- 
pation of  the  neophytes  of  San  Diego,  Santa  Barbara, 
and  Monterey,  —  a  decree  whereby  he  freed  them  to 
some  extent  from  the  authority  of  the  friars ;  and  in 
1830  he  brought  before  the  California  legislative  body  a 
secularization  plan,  providing  for  the  gradual  transfor- 
mation of  the  missions  into  pueblos,  and  for  giving  each 
neophyte  a  share  of  property.  The  plan  was  approved 
by  the  legislature,  and  then  forwarded  to  the  supreme 
government  for  confirmation  before  it  should  be  put  into 
operation. 

But  in  1830  Echeandia  was  succeeded  by  Manuel 
Victoria,  who  had  for  some  time  been  military  com- 
mandant in  Lower  California,  and  who  was  appointed 
in  March,  and  arrived  in  December  to  assume  the  gov- 
ernorship of  Alta  California.  There  was  some  willful 
delay  in  the  transfer  of  the  office,  and  Victoria  received 
the  command  in  January,  1831,  just  after  his  predeces- 
sor had  rather  hastily  and  vainly  attempted  to  put  into 
immediate  effect  his  own  plan  of  secularization  before 
retiring.  Victoria  was  welcomed  by  the  friars  as  an 
opponent  of  secularization  ;  but  his  rule,  conducted  after 
the  fashion  of  a  soldier,  was  with  the  non-clerical  Cali- 
fomians  unpopular,  and  was  brief.  He  did  not  con- 
rene  the  legislature,  he  seemed  throughout  arbitrary, 


^^^^Wi 


E   TERRITORY  AND   THE  STRANGERS.        23 

and  in  criminal  matters  he  sometimes  transgressed  his 
legal  authority.  Thus  dissatisfaction  grew  general,  both 
in  the  north  and  in  the  south,  and  quickly  culminated 
in  a  successful  revolt.  Victoria  was  wounded  in  a 
fight  with  the  insurgents  near  Los  Angeles,  —  a  fight  in 
which  but  two  men  in  all  were  killed  ;  and,  deserted  by 
his  followers,  the  fallen  governor  consented  to  accept 
a  chance  to  return  to  Mexico  from  California,  in  De- 
cember, 1831.^ 

An  interregnum  followed,  during  1832,  with  many 
domestic  quarrels  over  the  governorship  in  the  early 
part  of  that  year  ;  but  these  were  brought  to  an  end  by 
the  expectation  of  a  new  governor  from  Mexico.  This 
new  governor  proved  to  be  Jose  Figueroa,  an  able  man 
and  a  good  official,  whose  services  in  California,  coupled 
as  they  were  with  an  engaging  personal  behavior,  gained 
for  him  in  the  end  the  admiration  of  all  the  Californi- 
ans.  His  administration  was  interrupted  by  the  vexa- 
tious and  abortive  Mexican  colonization  scheme  that  the 
Hijar  and  Padres  party  were  commissioned  to  carry 
out,  in  1834,  under  official  sanction.  Part  of  the  lead- 
er's (Hijar's)  commission  having  been  countermanded 
by  fresh  orders  from  Mexico,  which  came  to  hand  after 
the  arrival  of  the  colony  in  California,  a  quarrel  sprang 
up  between  the  governor  and  Hijar  as  to  matters 
both  of  policy  and  of  authority,  —  a  quarrel  which  led  to 
some  rather  serious  difficulties.  The  whole  colonization 
scheme  finally  came  to  an  end  in  1835,  although  it  had 
by  that  time  been  the  means  of  adding  some  two  hun- 
dred to  the  population  of  California.  As  for  seculariza? 
tion,  that  approached  slowly  and  surely  under  Figueroa's 
administration,  although  he  himself  was  too  moderate  to 
1  On  Victoria's  career,  see  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  ch.  vii. 


24  CALIFORNIA. 

aim  for  the  moment  at  more  than  a  gradual  emancipa- 
tion of  the  neophytes.  But  the  same  influences  that  had 
led  to  the  colonization  schenae  had  acted  in  Mexico  to 
cause  immediate  secularization  to  be  ordered,  in  a  de- 
cree of  the  Mexican  Congress  of  August  17,  1833  ;  and 
Hijar,  with  his  colony,  in  1834,  prepared  to  take  part 
in  the  execution  of  this  decree.  The  failure  of  Hijar's 
plans  did  not  prevent  the  secularization  decree  from  hav- 
ing a  certain  effect.  The  padres  began,  at  certain  mis- 
sions, to  slaughter  the  mission  cattle,  and  to  sell  their 
produce  as  rapidly  as  possible.  They  also  neglected 
their  unsalable  properties  very  considerably,  and,  in  the 
mean  while,  the  number  of  neophytes  present  at  the  mis- 
sions began  to  show  a  rapid  decrease.  Figueroa  died 
in  September,  1835.^ 

With  Figueroa's  death  begins  a  time  of  extremely 
complex  political  intrigue  and  conflict  in  California. 
The  jealousy  that  Californians  now  more  and  more  felt 
against  all  Mexican  interference  was  henceforth  joined 
with  a  rapidly  growing  jealousy  between  the  northern 
and  southern  parts  of  the  territory  of  CaUfornia  itself, 
to  the  disturbance  of  all  political  relations.  Figueroa,  at 
his  death,  left  the  governorship  to  Jose  Castro,  and  the 
military  commandancy  to  the  ranking  officer  of  the  ter- 
ritory, Guteirrez.  The  former  gave  over  his  civil  office 
to  Gutierrez  in  January,  1836 ;  and  the  latter  ruled  for 
four  quiet  months,  until  the  coming  of  Mariano  Chico, 
who  had  been  appointed  by  the  central  government  to 
succeed  Figueroa.  Chico  was  the  best  hated,  and,  as  to 
personal  reputation,  the  most  unfortunate  of  all  the  Mex- 
ican governors  in  California,  although  his  rule  was  very 

1  See,  for  the  events  of  his  career,  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  chaps.  ix."« 
xW.  pp.  240,  aqq. 


4 


THE   TERRITORY  AND   THE  STRANGERS.        25 

brief.  He  had  to  encounter  the  growing  jealousy  afore- 
said, and  his  personal  bearing  was  such  as  to  inflame 
rather  than  to  conciliate  it,  insomuch  that  the  Calif orni- 
ans  joined  thenceforth  in  circulating  exaggerated  stories 
against  him,^  denouncing  him  as  "tyrant,  rascal,  and 
fool."  Furious  personal  quarrels,  threatened  rebellion, 
and  lack  of  support  from  the  central  government  forced 
him  to  retire  in  July  of  the  same  year ;  and  Gutierrez 
was  once  more  left  at  the  head  of  affairs.  But  the 
jealousy  of  everything  Mexican  was  still  growing.  The 
mass  of  the  Californians,  although  of  the  republican 
party,  had  found  that  Mexican  republicanism  brought 
no  good  to  the  land ;  while  the  padres,  looking  back  re- 
gretfully to  the  old  Spanish  days,  used  their  influence 
also  to  bring  Mexican  authority  into  discredit.  The 
better  Californian  families  felt  themselves  superior  in 
blood  to  the  most  of  the  Mexicans  ;  and  the  foreigners 
present  in  the  land,  numerous  enough  at  this  time  to  be 
influential,  were  equally  opposed  to  Mexico.^  The  re- 
sult of  all  this  was  the  Alvarado  revolution,  in  Novem- 
ber, 1836.  With  a  force  that  included  some  American 
hunters  and  some  foreign  sailors,  the  revolutionists  got 
possession  of  Monterey,  and  sent  Gutierrez  to  Mexico; 
all  of  which  was  accomplished,  after  the  Californian 
fashion  of  civil  warfare,  without  the  shedding  of  blood, 
and  by  the  mere  show  of  force.  The  country  was  de- 
clared a  sovereign  state,  which  was  thenceforth  to  have, 
if  possible,  only  a  federal  union  with  Mexico ;  the  legis- 
lature elected  Alvarado  governor  ad  interim,  and  the 
new   administration  began  with  seemingly  good  pros- 

1  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  427. 

2  This  summary  of  the  situation  is  founded  on  Bancroft's,  in  voL 
iii.  p.  449. 


26  CALIFORNIA. 

pects.  But  the  south,  the  Los  Angeles  and  San  Diego 
country,  was  still  to  be  conciliated,  before  California 
could  be  united  in  the  new  movement.^  Though  the 
Mexican  flag  still  waved  at  Monterey,  the  reports  car- 
ried to  the  south  attributed  to  the  revolutionists  extrav- 
agant designs,  such  as  the  defiance  of  Mexico,  the  de° 
livery  of  the  province  into  American  hands,  and  the 
subversion  of  the  Catholic  faith.'^  A  patriotic  reaction 
was  therefore  threatened  from  Los  Angeles,  and  Alva- 
rado  had  to  go  south  with  a  force,  to  meet  in  person  the 
influences  arrayed  against  him.  He  was  successful  in 
winning  general  support  at  Santa  Barbara,  and  he  en- 
tered Los  Angeles  itself,  without  serious  resistance,  in 
January,  1837.  Further  complications  ensued;  but  in 
May  the  political  success  of  Alvarado's  cause  in  the 
south  seemed  already  complete,  and,  in  a  proclamation, 
the  new  governor  declared  the  country  free  and  united, 
although  he  never  gave  up  the  union  with  Mexico. 
But  such  complete  practical  freedom  as  he  had  thus  far 
planned  was  indeed  to  be  given  up  ;  for  in  June,  1837, 
Andres  Castillero  arrived  as  Mexican  commissioner  to 
California.  He  at  first  joined  the  opponents  of  Alva- 
rado  at  San  Diego,  and,  with  an  armed  force  of  southern- 
ers, under  the  leadership  of  partisan  opponents  of  Alva- 
rado,  once  more  threatened  to  restore  Mexican  suprem- 
acy, and  to  overthrow  the  northern  leader.  Castillero 
had  been  commissioned  in  Mexico  to  bring  to  California 
the  constitutional  laws  of  December,  1836,  which  repre- 
sented the  new  order  in  Mexico,  and  to  receive  the  oaths 
of  allegiance  to  this  new  order  from  Californian  officials, 
^varado,  before  any  collision  of  forces  could  take  place. 

1  For  the  revolution,  see  Bancroft,  loc.  cit.,  pp.  452-47&> 
3  Bancroft,  loc.  cit.,  p.  480. 


r 


THE  TERRITORY  AND   THE  STRANGERS.        27 


now  resolved  to  dispose  of  the  southern  opposition  by 
removing  its  chief  ostensible  cause ;  that  is,  by  coming  to 
terms  with  Castillero,  by  giving  up  his  idea  of  mere  fed- 
eration, and  by  thus  consenting  to  submit  himself  to  con- 
stitutional Mexican  authority.  He  hoped,  not  wrongly, 
as  the  sequel  proved,  that  he  could  in  this  way  get  confir- 
mation of  himself  as  Mexican  governor,  and  at  the  same 
time,  so  to  speak,  "  dish  "  his  southern  enemies.  This 
"  triumph  in  defeat "  ^  Alvarado  gained  by  coming  into 
friendly  relations  with  Castillero,  and  by  persuading 
him  to  go  back  to  Mexico  in  Alvarado's  own  interest,  so 
as  to  get  what  CastiUero  had  not  yet,  authority  to  re- 
ceive Alvarado's  submission,  and  further  authority  to 
make  the  latter,  who  still  stood  in  the  position  of  rebel, 
the  constitutional  governor  of  California.  The  southern 
U'  opposition  was  thus  for  the  time  overcome. 
jU  In  October,  1837,  the  news  of  the  appointment  of  a 
/'  new  governor,  Carlos  Carrillo,  reached  the  land.  The 
'  appointment  had  been  made  before  Alvarado's  submis- 
sion was  heard  of.  The  opponents  of  Alvarado  were 
now  once  more  delighted ;  Carrillo  was  himself  a  well- 
known  Californian,  and  commanded  sympathy  in  the 
south.  But,  as  turned  out,  he  was  politically  incapable, 
and  Alvarado  forthwith  determined  to  resist  him,  and 
did  so  successfully.  In  the  subsequent  warfare  one 
little  "  battle  "  took  place  at  San  Buenaventura,  which 
resulted  in  the  death  of  one  man  and  in  the  flight  of 
the  forces  that  represented  Carrillo's  party.  In  April, 
1838,  Carrillo  himself  capitulated  at  Las  Flores,  some 
fifty  or  sixty  miles  north  of  San  Diego ;  and  Alvarado 
was  again  left,  after  this  once  more  nearly  bloodless  con- 
flict, in  actual  command  of  the  country. 
1  Bancroft,  loc.  cit.,  p.  527. 


28  CALIFORNIA. 

The  successful  rebel  and  able  political  leader  was  now 
erelong  confirmed  by  the  central  government  as  consti- 
tutional governor  of  what  was  henceforth  to  be  called 
the  "  Department  of  California,"  and  thus  the  northern 
party  triumphed  over  the  south  and  over  the  Mexicans 
also.  The  rest  of  the  rule  of  Alvarado  was  indeed  not 
perfectly  peaceful.  In  1840  he  quarreled  somewhat 
bitterly  with  General  Vallejo,  his  relative,  his  com- 
mandante  general,  and  his  former  partisan.  In  the 
same  year  a  much  more  serious  and  important  event 
took  place,  namely,  the  expulsion  to  Mexico  of  above 
forty  foreigners,  a  company  largely  made  up  of  Amer- 
icans and  Englishmen,  sailors,  hunters,  and  vagabonds. 
Among  them  was  one  Isaac  Graham,  who  had  taken 
part  with  Alvarado  himself  in  the  revolution  of  1836, 
and  whom  the  expulsion,  as  it  was  represented  to  our 
public,  converted  into  a  great  hero.  He  was,  however, 
a  rascal,  and,  as  the  documents  show,  even  such  were 
nearly  all  his  fellows  in  exile.  But  the  American  and 
English  governments  were  led  to  look  upon  the  affair 
as  an  outrage,  and  eighteen  of  the  expelled  returned  in 
freedom  next  year.  The  charge  made  against  the  exiles 
was  that  of  plotting  against  the  government,  and  this 
charge  was  not  entirely  unfounded ;  but,  as  it  was  not 
legally  proved,  the  expulsion  was  not  in  form  justifiable, 
although  far  too  much  has  since  been  piade  of  the  so- 
called  outrage,  for  which  Mexico  had  later  to  pay.'' 

In  1842  Mexico  made  one  more  effort  to  give  Cali- 
fornia a  Mexican  governor,  in  the  person  of  General 
Micheltorena.  His  well-meaning  rule  was  embittered 
by  the  unfortunate  character  of  the  Mexican  recruits 

1  Bancroft's  account,  as  far  as  yet  published,  is  in  his  "Pioneer 
Begister,"  vol.  iii.  p.  763  of  the  California, 


THE  TERRITORY  AND  THE  STRANGERS.        29 

that  he  brought  with  him  when  he  came,  since  some  of 
them  were  convicts,  and  all  were  disliked.  In  the  end 
the  Calif ornians,  of  nearly  all  parties,  joined  in  a  revolt 
against  Micheltorena,  at  the  end  of  1844.  In  January, 
1845,  the  united  insurgents,  having  retreated  to  the 
south,  were  followed  nearly  to  Los  Angeles  by  the  little 
regular  army  of  Micheltorena,  which  had  been  joined  by 
a  force  from  the  Sacramento  Valley,  consisting  of  Amer- 
ican riflemen  and  of  Indian  servants  of  Captain  Sutter. 
On  the  insurgent  side,  also,  there  were  some  Americans, 
residents  in  the  south,  who  had  a  horror  of  the  bad  re- 
pute of  Micheltorena's  soldiers,  and  who  were  determined 
to  see  all  these  "  convicts "  expelled  from  California. 
The  Americans,  however,  from  the  two  sides,  met  in 
a  parley  before  the  battle,  and  resolved  to  remain  neu- 
tral. The  "  battle  "  itself  was  as  bloodless  as  most  Cali- 
fornian  encounters.  Tremendous  cannonading  is  some- 
times said,  in  the  accounts,  to  have  taken  place.  Two  or 
three  horses  and  mules  were  hurt ;  but  the  armies  on  both 
sides  kept  well  out  of  range.  The  result  was  the  capitu- 
lation of  Micheltorena,  the  success  of  a  new  revolutionary 
government,  and,  towards  the  close  of  the  year,  a  new 
mission  of  pacification  from  Mexico,  and  a  new  recogt- 
nition  of  the  existing  order  of  things  as  the  legal  one. 
The  governor  of  the  Department  was  now  Pio  Pico, 
who  was  of  the  south,  and  was  the  senior  legislator  of 
the  Hputacion,  while  the  commandante  general  was  Jose 
Castro,  who  had  formerly  been  prominent  as  a  partisan 
of  Alvarado,  and  who  lived  at  Monterey.  The  old 
quarrel  of  north  and  south  quickly  reappeared  between 
these  two,  and  the  rest  of  the  political  history  of  Cali- 
fornia, until  the  time  of  our  conquest,  is  one  of  intrigue 
and  petty  quarrel,   which   might   have   led  to  another 


30  CALIFORNIA. 

bloodless  civil  war  in  1846,  had  we  not  intervened  with 
our  own  fashion  of  fighting.  Civilized  warfare  was,  in 
fact,  introduced  into  California  through  the  undertak- 
ings of  our  own  gallant  Captain  Fremont.  For  in  civ- 
ilized warfare,  as  is  well  known,  somebody  always  gets 
badly  hurt. 

y)    in.   THE   CALIFOBNIANS   AS   A   PEOPLE.  , 

After  this  hasty  glance  at  the  past  history  of  our 
province,  we  must  describe  in  brief  the  character  of  the 
people,  the  condition  of  the  country  at  the  moment  of 
our  conquest,  and  the  doings  of  our  own  countryman  in 
the  land  in  the  times  before  the  conquest. 

California,  as  we  see,  was  in  1846  an  outlying  and 
neglected  Mexican  province.  Its  missions,  once  pros- 
perous, had  had  their  estates  in  large  part  secularized 
during  the  later  years,  had  fallen  into  decay,  and  were 
now  helpless,  and  sometimes  in  ruins.  The  mission  In- 
dians had  in  large  part  disappeared.  The  church  was 
no  longer  a  power.  The  white  population  was  made  up 
principally  of  Spanish  and  Mexican  colonists,  whose 
chief  industry  was  raising  cattle  for  the  hides  and 
tallow,  and  whose  private  lives  were  free,  careless,  and 
o  ^  "i  whole,  as  this  world  goes,  moderately  charm- 
'ii»  innocent.     So  at  least  those  who  really  knew 

tb  ays  tell  us.    These  people  were  gay  and  jovial, 

fu  /ood   fellowship   and   hospitality.      Nearly  all 

th  er  families  of  the  community  were  superior  to 

tht  a»erage  of  Mexicans,  having  generally  a  purer 
Castilian  blood,  since  in  many  cases  the  colonists  had 
come  almost  directly  from  Spain.  Crime  was  confined 
in  general  to  the  lower  sorts  of  people  in  the  towns. 
The  ranckeros  lived  much  as  comparatively  well-to-do 


THE  TERRITORY  AND  THE  STRANGERS.        31 

countrymen  of  happy  and  unprogressive  type  always 
live  when  in  a  mild  climate.  They  rode  a  great  deal, 
dressed  in  gay  colors,  visited  one  another  frequently, 
had  very  pleasant  social  gatherings,  enjoyed  many  sports 
together,  drank  at  times,  gambled  a  little,  lived  to  a 
good  old  age,  and  had  very  large  families.  In  the 
towns,  the  life  was  a  trifle  more  complex,  and  there  was 
a  sjiarper  distinction  of  social  classes.  But  the  hearti- 
est hospitality,  especially  to  strangers,  was  here,  as  in 
the  country,  almost  universal.  The  rancheros  paid  their 
debts  to  the  Yankee  traders  in  the  towns  on  the  coast 
a  little  slowly  ;  but  they  were  still  on  the  whole  a  very 
honest  folk,  and  generally  paid  in  the  end,  in  the  cur- 
rency of  the  country,  i.  e.,  in  hides,  which  the  traders 
received  at  the  uniform  value  of  two  dollars  apiece,  and 
sent  to  the  United  States  by  the  Boston-bound  ships. 
These  ships,  on  their  outward  voyages,  brought  many- 
colored  calicoes,  together  with  boots,  shoes,  and  nearlj'" 
all  the  manufactured  goods  consumed  in  the  country ; 
and  the  natives  paid  enormous  prices  for  these  things,  of 
course  without  ever  dreaming  of  home  manufactures. 

The  political  feuds  of  the  later  years  must  not  be 
interpreted  as  meaning  that  the  Californians  were  ,r'^ 
vengeful  and  cruel,  or  that  the  whole  thoughts  / 
people  were  devoted  to  quarrels  and  bitterness.  On  the 
contrary,  the  bloodless  playfulness  of  these  civil  wars 
themselves,  with  their  furious  proclamations,  their  mock 
battles,  —  noisy  but  harmless,  —  and  their  peaceful  end- 
ings, sufficiently  characterizes  the  geniality,  the  simple- 
mindedness,  the  childish  love  of  display,  and  the  really 
humane  tender-heartedness  of  this  proud,  gay,  unpro- 
gressive, not  very  courageous,  but  surely  comparatively 
guiltless  people.     Their  private  vices  were  of  a  youthful 


82  CALIFORNIA, 

and  sensuous  but  not  of  a  deeply  corrupt  type.  Their 
domestic  life  itself  was  generally  pure  and  devoted. . 
Their  wives  and  daughters  were  in  almost  all  cases  above 
reproach,  and  were  models  of  their  own  sort  of  woman- 
hood. Sailor-boys,  such  as  the  young  Dana's  associates, 
might  indulge  in  characteristic  gossip  about  the  supposed 
frailties  of  all  Calif ornian  women,  —  gossip  such  as  was 
repeated  in  some  passages  of  the  "  Two  Years  Before 
the  Mast,"  —  but  those  who  knew  the  Calif ornians  well, 
and  lived  among  them,  have  no  such  flippant  remarks 
to  make.  Domestic  fidelity  is  a  very  frequent  virtue 
among  at  least  the  women  of  peoples  that  are  at  once 
Catholic  and  pastoral ;  and  these  Californian  women 
were  too  remote  from  the  world,  and  too  decently 
trained,  to  hear  of  the  vices  of  city  Hfe.  The  men,  in* 
deed,  —  and  especially  the  younger  men,  —  in  such  life 
as  lay  outside  of  domestic  relations,  lacked  moral  fibre  ; 
and  some  of  the  ablest  of  them  early  fell  a  prey  to 
drunkenness  or  to  worse  vices.  But  their  vices  indicated, 
as  we  have  said,  rather  a  foolish  youth  than  the  developed 
brutality  that  our  own  Anglo-Saxon  frontiersmen  of  the 
worst  sort  are  accustomed  to  show.  However  worthy 
our  American  merchants  and  immigrant  families  often 
were  in  those  days,  our  trappers  and  other  like  home- 
less wanderers  in  CaUfomia  in  the  years  before  1846 
were  commonly  a  very  far  worse  set  tlian  the  Californi- 
ans  ;  a  fact  which  these  vagabonds  themselves  were  not 
slow  to  realize,  and  one  which  inspired  them  individu- 
ally with  the  most  violent  hatred  and  disgust  towards  ail 
the  riglitful  dwellers  in  the  land. 

The  Califomians  had,  of  course,  little  opportunity  for 
cultivation,  and  they  had  generally  few  intellectual  -wn- 
bitions.     But,  like   the  southern   peoples  of   European 


THE  TERRITORY  AND   THE   STRANGERS.        33 

blood  generally,  they  had  a  great  deal  of  natural  quick- 
ness of  wit,  and  in  their  written  work  often  expressed 
themselves  with  ease  and  force.  Their  women  were 
fascinating  conversers,  even  when  not  at  all  educated. 
Their  more  noteworthy  men,  such  as  Alvarado,  VaUejo, 
and  others,  were  often  persons  of  very  marked  intelli- 
gence and  even  of  considerable  reading.  The  curiously 
unequal  aesthetic  sense  of  the  people  always  puzzled  the 
American  observer.  They  spoke  and  gestured  with 
what  seemed  to  our  dull  eyes  wonderful  grace.  They 
appeared  to  be  born  musicians,  and,  quite  without  train- 
ing, they  sang  finely  and  played  their  guitars  skillfully 
and  spiritedly.  They  dressed  with  true  southern  taste. 
All  their  movements  on  foot  or  on  horseback  were  easy 
and  picturesque;  and  their  keen  perception  of  beauty 
was  in  some  ways  marvelous.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
their  houses  were  often  very  dirty  and  were  seldom  in 
the  least  attractive ;  and  if  one  attributes  this  to  their 
simplicity  and  to  their  total  lack  of  power  to  buy  better 
things  for  their  houses,  one  has  still  to  mention  that 
curiously  disgusting  practice  of  many  rancheros,  who 
were  accustomed  to  slaughter  animals  and  to  strip  and 
clean  the  carcasses  almost,  as  it  were,  in  their  door- 
yards,  and  so  to  make  the  ground  not  far  from  their 
houses  look  like  Golgotha.  Hospitality  to  a  stranger 
sometimes  included  slaughtering  before  his  eyes  the  bul- 
lock that  he  was  to  eat,  and  preparing  the  carcass  on  the 
spot.  And  early  travelers  are  never  weary  of  complain- 
ing of  the  fleas  found  in  nearly  all  the  houses. 

That  the  Californian  was  uninventive,  and  was  con- 
tent in  his  way  with  atrociously  awkward  mechanical 
devices,  follows,  of  course,  very  easily  from  his  national 
character  and  habits.     His  wagons  had  four  sections  of 


34  CALIFORNIA. 

a  log  for  wheels.  He  had  hardly  any  good  firearms, 
and  could  not  use  what  he  had  to  advantage  against 
any  American  frontiersman,  being  himself  no  marks- 
man. He  took  care  of  his  cattle  and  horses  well  enough 
for  his  very  simple  purposes,  but  cared  little  for  further 
agricultural  progress,  and  seldom  even  thought  of  using 
milch-cows.  He  was  patriotic  in  his  devotion  to  what 
he  often  called  his  country,  namely,  California  itself. 
He  was  a  fairly  good  citizen,  submissive  to  his  alcaldes^ 
or  local  judges,  and  he  was  reasonably  loyal  to  the  po- 
litical faction  that  he  had  for  the  time  espoused.  But, 
in  politics  as  in  morals  and  in  material  wealth,  he  was 
unprogressive.  When  his  time  of  trial  should  arrive  he 
would  show  no  great  power  of  endurance.  The  coming 
temptations  and  excitements,  the  injustice  and  the  un- 
kindness  of  a  conquering  and  often  wickedly  progressive 
race,  would  often  find  him  morally  weak,  and  would 
rapidly  degrade  him,  too  often  losing  for  him  his  man- 
hood and  his  soul  altogether,  to  his  own  bitter  shame, 
and  often  to  the  still  greater  shame  of  his  stronger 
brother,  the  carelessly  brutal  American  settler  or  miner. 

IV.      THE   AMERICANS   IN   CALIFORNIA   BEFORE   tHB 
CONQUEST. 

Somewhat  early  in  the  century  there  appeared  on  the 
California  coast  American  trading-vessels  and  whalers. 
By  the  voyage  of  the  trading-vessel  Sachem,  in  1822, 
the  trade  between  Boston  and  California  was  opened, 
and  a  cargo  of  tallow  and  hides  was  obtained  at  Mon- 
terey.* Hereafter  the  American  trade  rapidly  in- 
creased, and  in  the  end  became  the  chief  trade  in  exist- 
ence, on  the  coast  during  the  Mexican  period.  From 
1  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  476. 


THE  TERRITORY  AND  THE  STRANGERS.        35 

the  East,  meanwhile,  trappers  and  hunters  began  to  come 
overland  to  California  as  early  as  1826,  which  was  the 
year  of  a  trapping  party  led  by  Jedediah  S.  Smith.* 
From  both  of  these  sources  of  communication  California 
received  in  the  sequel  additions  to  her  population.  The 
first  Americans  who  were  led  to  take  up  their  residence 
in  the  land  were,  for  the  most  part,  men  of  character 
and  ability,  who  were  concerned  in  the  Boston  trading 
enterprises.  Some  of  those  who  thus  came,  even  before 
1830,  have  since  been,  in  their  ovm  callings,  prominent 
in  California  affairs  down  nearly  to  the  present  moment. 
When  the  new-comers  had  business  in  the  land,  and 
were  well-disposed  persons,  they  were,  during  the  early 
Mexican  period,  very  welcome  among  the  hospitable 
Californians.  Many  applied  for  naturalization  as  Mexi- 
can citizens,  and  obtained  it.  A  considerable  number, 
in  the  sequel,  married  into  Californian  families  ;  some 
acquired  land  grants  and  became  very  prosperous. 
Mexican  law,  meanwhile,  was  always  in  form  very  strict 
about  requiring  passports  of  foreigners,  and  about  sub- 
jecting them  to  a  good  deal  of  official  watching.  Such 
restrictions  proved,  however,  of  little  practical  incon- 
venience to  men  of  good  behavior  and  of  responsible 
position  in  California. 

Before  1835,  about  thirty  of  the  hunters  who  had  en- 
tered California  in  the  various  overland  parties  are  said 
to  have  taken  up  a  more  or  less  permanent  abode  in  the 
land.^  The  popular  feeling  towards  foreigners  was  in 
1835  still  tolerant,  and  in  many  cases  very  cordial, 
and  little  fear  of  foreign  aggression  existed.  In  aU, 
perhaps    three  hundred,  according   to  Mr.   Bancroft's 

1  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  152. 
S  Ibid.  p.  393. 


B6  CALIFORNIA. 

estimate,  would  express  the  number  of  the  foreign  male 
population  in  1835.^  It  was  in  this  year  that  the  young 
Dana's  visit  fell.  In  1836  the  American  hunters  near 
Monterey,  together  with  some  other  foreigners,  took 
part,  as  we  have  seen,  in  the  Alvarado  revolution.  By 
1840,  as  we  have  also  seen,  some  of  these  very  men 
had  rendered  themselves  so  obnoxious  as  to  bring  about 
the  expulsion  of  the  less  welcome  foreigners  in  that  year, 
—  an  expulsion  which  did  not  affect  Americans  of  any 
position  in  the  land,  and  which  was  probably  not  very 
seriously  disapproved  by  the  American  merchants  them- 
selves, OP  by  the  American  land-owners.  Yet,  with  the 
time  of  this  occurrence,  the  era  of  greater  or  less 
trouble  with  foreigners  may  be  said  to  have  begun. 
But  no  general  hatred  or  oppression  of  foreigners,  such 
as  has  often  been  attributed  to  the  Californians  of  this 
period,  ever  existed  before  1846.  The  troubles,  such 
as  they  were,  were  caused,  during  these  last  few  years, 
almost  altogether  by  the  lawless,  or  at  best  suspicious, 
acts  of  a  few  foreign  vagabonds.  Such  persons,  escaped 
sailors,  wandering  hunters,  adventurous  rascals  of  va- 
rious sorts,  were  from  time  to  time  a  source  of  trouble 
and  anxiety  to  Californian  alcaldes  and  governors. 
Such  Americans  as  these  were  of  course  the  loudest  in 
their  protests,  when  they  were  arrested  or  expelled,  and 
such  freely  threatened  that  American  citizens  would 
take  the  first  opportunity  that  offered  to  free  this  land 
from  what  these  law-breakers  naturally  regarded  as 
Mexican  oppression.  No  wonder  that  all  Californians 
came  to  dislike  such  people  as  these,  and  that  some 
prominent  men  of  the  country  extended  this  personal 

1  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  402.    This  includes  "sons  of  pioneers  by 
native  wives." 


THE   TERRITORY  AND  THE  STRANGERS.        37 

dislike  to  our  whole  nation.  But,  before  the  era  of  the 
conquest  itself,  we  cannot  say  that  the  Californians  as 
a  people  were  enemies  of  the  American  nation,  or  that 
we  by  rights  need  have  feared  any  very  violent  opposi- 
tion from  them  to  our  own  national  schemes  of  com- 
merce and  of  possession  in  the  Pacific  regions.  In 
1842,  just  as  Micheltorena  was  on  his  way  from  Mexico 
to  California,  about  to  enter  on  his  duties  as  governor, 
our  naval  commander  in  the  Pacific,  Commodore 
Thomas  Ap  Catesby  Jones,  hearing  at  Callao  an  un- 
founded report  that  our  national  difficulties  with  Mexico 
about  Texas  had  already  culminated  in  war,  formed 
a  hasty  resolution  to  seize  upon  the  ports  of  California, 
in  advance  of  further  orders  from  his  government.  Ac- 
cordingly he  sailed  to  Monterey,  entered  the  harbor, 
and  seized  the  port,  without  meeting  any  resistance  to 
his  raising  of  the  flag.  The  act  produced  no  small 
momentary  consternation  in  Monterey,  but  nobody  there 
seems  to  have  planned  any  serious  measures  of  further 
defense.  Hearing,  however,  that  the  report  upon  which 
he  had  acted  was  unfounded,  Jones  took  down  the  flag 
the  next  day,  apologized,  and  retired,  stopping,  on  his 
voyage,  at  San  Pedro,  and  visiting  at  Los  Angeles  the 
new  Governor  Micheltorena  himself.  Jones's  apologies 
were  accepted  with  a  good-will  by  the  Californians,  and, 
while  the  central  Mexican  government  took  every  pos- 
sible diplomatic  advantage  of  the  outrage,  in  the  corre- 
spondence which  ensued  with  our  government,  the  Cal- 
ifornian  people  themselves,  in  their  benighted  state  of 
semi-independence,  showed  a  very  imperfect  sense  of 
how  much  they  had  been  injured  by  this  insult  offered 
to  Mexico.  The  American  merchants  on  the  coast  felt 
their  intercourse  with  the  Californians  no  less  cordial 


38  CALIFORNIA. 

than  before,  and  the  incident  passed  by  without  further 
evil  consequences.^ 

Most  prominent,  in  the  later  years,  among  the  Arner* 
ican  merchants  on  the  coast,  was  Thomas  O.  Larkin,  a 
native  of  Massachusetts,  a  shrewd  and  able  trader,  who 
had  come  to  California  already  in  1832,  and  who  in  the 
end  acquired  a  considerable  fortune  as  owner  of  a 
wholesale  and  retail  store  in  Monterey.  It  was  he  who, 
in  1844,  was  made  by  our  government  the  first,  and,  as 
it  proved,  the  last,  American  consul.  It  was  also  he 
who,  during  the  years  between  1840  and  1846,  most 
wisely  and  cautiously  brought  to  bear  his  not  inconsider- 
able personal  influence  to  increase  the  good-will  of  the 
native  Californians  towards  the  American  government 
and  people,  and  who,  by  occasional  letters  to  newspapers 
at  home,  labored  to  make  his  countrymen  understand 
the  importance  of  California.  As  we  shall  hereafter  see, 
Larkin  is  the  only  American  official  who  can  receive 
nearly  unmixed  praise  in  connection  with  the  measures 
that  led  to  our  acquisition  of  California.     His  actual 

1  For  the  correspondence  between  the  Mexican  and  American  gov- 
ernments about  this  affair  see  House  Ex.  Doc,  27th  Congr.,  3d  Sess., 
vol.  V.  Doc.  166.  P'or  the  views  of  the  Californians,  see  Mr.  Alfred 
Robinson's  Life  in  California  (New  York,  1846),  pp.  210,  $qq.  ; 
also  Consul  Larkin's  letters  to  the  State  Department  as  later  cited. 
Mr.  Robinson's  whole  book  is  one  of  the  best  of  the  early  American 
accounts  of  the  people  and  of  American  life  in  the  land.  The  author 
38,  in  1885,  still  living  in  San  Francisco,  certainly  the  oldest  surviving 
American  pioneer,  and  a  man  of  very  fine  ability  and  judgment. 
Much  of  the  foregoing  view  of  the  Californian  life  and  of  the  inter- 
course with  Americans  I  have  derived  from  unpublished  statements 
now  in  Mr.  Bancroft's  library.  Of  these  one  of  the  most  interesting 
descriptions  of  the  people  is  that  by  Mr.  W.  H.  Davis,  a  MS.  en- 
titled Glimpsea  of  the  Past.  Mr.  Bancroft's  invaluable  treasures, 
the  Larkin  Papers,  throw  a  great  deal  of  indirect  light  on  the  same 
topic. 


THE  TERRITORY  AND   THE  STRANGERS.        39 

effectiveness  was  indeed  greatly  hindered  by  the  un- 
warranted doings  of  other  people  ;  but  he  occupies  the 
happy  position  of  having  done  his  official  duty  in  the 
matter  so  far  as  he  knew  liis  duty. 

Larkin,  though  a  clever  servant  in  this  one  position, 
was  no  educated  man.  In  his  dispatches  to  the  State 
Department  he  often  writes  rather  uncouthly ;  but  he  al- 
ways writes  sensibly.  In  his  business  relations  he  was 
enterprising,  fully  possessed  of  his  provincial  shrewd- 
ness, and  sometimes  overbearing ;  but  his  hospitality  is 
always  highly  praised  by  the  Americans  of  the  time 
before  the  conquest,  while  his  influential  position  as 
merchant  at  Monterey,  together  with  his  later  official 
rank,  made  his  house  for  some  years  before  1846  the 
social  headquarters  of  the  Americans  in  California. 
After  the  gold  discovery  he  became  for  a  while  quite 
wealthy,  and  lived  for  some  years  in  the  East.  He  is 
said  to  have  expressed  chagrin  (not,  to  be  sure,  with- 
out good  cause),  in  view  of  the  lack  of  appreciation  that 
prominent  people  always  showed  for  his  past  services  in 
helping  to  win  California.  This  imperfectly  educated 
California  trader  no  doubt  appeared,  in  his  later  years, 
to  poor  advantage  in  New  York  and  Washington,  where 
he  had  no  influential  friends  to  sound  his  praises  in 
political  circles ;  but  history  will  give  him  the  credit  of 
having  been  his  coimtry's  most  efficient  instrument  in 
California  at  the  period  of  the  conquest. 

His  correspondence,  both  with  his  mercantile  friends 
in  California  and  with  the  State  Department  at  Wash- 
ington, has  been  preserved  among  his  family  papers,  and 
is  now  in  Mr.  H.  H.  Bancroft's  hands.  It  is  the  best 
source  extant  concerning  the  moods,  the  hopes,  the 
fears,  the  murmurings,  the  petty  personal  quarrels,  the 


40  CALIFORNIA. 

private  gossip,  and  the  whole  social  life  of  the  American 
traders  in  California  before  the  conquest ;  and,  as  we 
shall  see,  it  is  the  only  source,  save  the  Washington 
archives,  whence  can  be  derived  a  knowledge  of  the 
true  ofl&cial  story  of  the  conquest  itself. 

Between  1839  and  1846  there  grew  up  in  the  Sacra- 
mento Valley  a  settlement  of  Americans,  composed  partly 
of  most  worthy  and  conservative  men,  and  partly  of 
such  wanderers  as  we  before  have  mentioned.  Of  all 
the  early  American  undertakings  in  the  land,  this  was 
naturally  the  one  that  aroused  most  seriously  and  justly 
the  suspicions  of  the  Californians.  Most  of  these  new- 
comers reached  California  overland.  Many  of  them 
were  persons  but  little  known  to  the  natives,  while  some 
of  them  were,  unfortunately,  too  well  known.  Only  a 
few  of  them  appeared  very  frequently,  or  were  well 
and  favorably  regarded,  on  the  coast.  The  others  were 
understood,  after  1844,  to  be  occasionally  plotting  a 
rising  against  the  authorities  of  the  Department;  and 
some  of  them  were  certainly  men  of  bad  character. 
Therefore,  although  the  settlement,  whose  nucleus  was 
Captain  J.  A.  Sutter's  Fort,  near  the  junction  of  the 
American  and  Sacramento  rivers,  was  an  officially  rec- 
ognized thing,  and  although  Sutter  himself  was  a  regu- 
lar officer  of  the  government,  and  had  received  in  1841 
a  land  grant  of  the  maximum  legal  amount  (eleven 
square  leagues)  from  Governor  Alvarado,  still  the  Cal- 
ifornians suspected  Sutter's  settlers  more  than  they  did 
any  other  large  company  of  Americans,  and  feared  very 
often  the  consequences  that  might  ensue  if  many  more 
immigrants  )s^me  over  the  Sierras.  It  was  never  so 
much  any  official  American  aggression  as  the  coming  of 
bad  Americans  that  the  Californians  of  those  days  seri- 


THE   TERRITORY  AND   THE  STRANGERS.        41 

ously  and  justly  dreaded.  There  was  indeed  never  any 
thought  of  actually  expelling  these  new-comers,  because 
every  one  saw  the  impossibility,  after  1843,  of  any  such 
attempt.  And  if  the  new  settlers  should  prove  peace- 
able men,  the  Californians  were  never  disposed  to  mal- 
treat them.  But  the  settlers  themselves  were  frequently 
the  most  willing  to  give  a  boastful  and  bad  account  of 
the  great  things  that  they  would  yet  do  in  the  land. 

John  A.  Sutter  himself  was  of  Swiss  family,  and  of 
German  birth.  He  long  (to  say  the  least  of  it)  per- 
mitted the  story  to  be  circulated  that  he  had  been  in  the 
service  of  Charles  X.  in  France  ;  but  in  later  years  he 
admitted  the  falsity  of  the  report.  After  living  some 
years  in  our  country,  and  becoming  a  citizen,  he  came 
to  California  in  1839,  by  the  way  of  the  overland  route 
to  Oregon,  and  by  a  sea  passage  from  Oregon  via  the 
Sandwich  Islands.  He  at  once  founded,  with  official 
permission,  his  settlement  in  the  Sacramento  Valley, 
and  two  years  later  got  his  grant  of  land.  In  1841 
he  was  joined  by  some  of  the  American  immigrants 
who  came  overland  that  year,  and  the  subsequent 
years  saw  a  rapid  increase  of  his  prosperity  and  of 
the  numbers  of  those  who  either  assisted  him,  or  took 
up  land  under  his  grant,  or  used  his  fort  as  their  reri/- 
dezvous.  He  employed  many  Indians,  raised  large 
crops  of  grain,  aimed  to  make  his  little  colony  the  pro- 
ducer of  nearly  all  its  own  supplies,  showed  much  hos- 
pitality to  new-comers,  and,  in  1845,  undertook  to  assist 
Governor  Micheltorena  in  the  latter's  troubles.  In  con- 
sequence of  this  last  blunder  he  was  on  poor  terms  with 
the  successful  revolutionary  authorities  during  the  brief 
remainder  of  the  Mexican  period.  In  character  Sutter 
was  an  affable  and  hospitable  visionary,  of  hazy  ideas, 


42  CALIFORNIA. 

with  a  great  liking  for  popularity,  and  with  a  mania  for 
undertaking  too  much.  An  heroic  figure  he  was  not, 
although  his  romantic  position  as  pioneer  in  the  great 
valley  made  him  seem  so  to  many  travelers  and  his- 
torians. When  the  gold-seekers  later  came,  the  am- 
bitious Sutter  utterly  lost  his  head,  and  threw  away  all 
his  truly  wonderful  opportunities.  He,  however,  also 
suffered  many  things  from  the  injustice  of  the  new-com- 
ers. He  died  a  few  years  since  in  poverty,  complaining 
bitterly  of  American  ingratitude.  He  should  undoubt- 
edly have  been  better  treated  by  most  of  our  country- 
men, but,  if  he  was  often  wronged,  he  was  also  often  in 
the  wrong,  and  his  fate  was  the  ordinary  one  of  the  per- 
sistent and  unteachable  dreamer.  He  remained  to  the 
end  a  figure  more  picturesque  than  manly  in  our  Cal- 
ifornia life. 

The  settlers  at  and  near  Sutter's  Fort  included  some 
families  and  a  number  of  very  able  young  men.  In 
January,  1844,  the  fort  was  visited  by  the  first  exploring 
expedition  that  the  young  officer  of  engineers,  then  Lieu- 
tenant Fremont,  conducted  to  the  land.  The  expedition 
had  crossed  the  Sierras  in  midwinter  ;  and  now,  greatly 
exhausted  and  nearly  starved,  the  men  were  overjoyed 
to  meet  with  the  delights  of  Sutter's  hospitality.  This 
expedition  it  was  that  the  young  leader  so  finely  de- 
scribed in  his  great  Report,  a  work  that  soon  became 
almost  universally  known,  and  that  will  always  remain 
a  monument  of  literary  skill  in  its  kind.  While  the 
exploring  expedition  had  really  visited  little  country 
that  was  not  already  more  or  less  known  to  settlers 
or  to  trappers,  this  description  first  let  the  public  hear 
of  the  places  that  had  been  seen.  I  fancy  that  this 
Report  will   be,   in  future  generations,  General   Fr©» 


THE  TERRITORY  AND  THE  STRANGERS.       43 

mont's  only  title,  and  a  very  good  one,  to  lasting  and 
genuine  fame. 

Just  at  the  very  moment  of  the  conquest,  the  greatest 
of  the  overland  immigrations,  so  far,  was  taking  place, 
that  to  California  and  Oregon  in  1846.  Although  this 
company  reached  the  land  after  the  conquest,  their 
journey  should  be  treated  of  before  the  conquest,  because, 
when  they  set  out,  they  knew  nothing  of  the  change. 
The  importance  of  their  movement,  which  brought  to 
California  directly  several  hundred  new  settlers,  and  by 
way  of  Oregon  many  more,  cannot  well  be  overestimated. 
The  men  of  1846  afterwards  joined  the  other  Ameri- 
cans, during  the  interregnum,  in  building  up  for  them- 
selves the  strong  conservative  sentiment  that  proved  so 
useful  in  the  constitutional  convention  of  1849.  The 
new-comers  arrived  in  time,  also,  to  join  in  suppressing 
*  the  revolt  of  the  winter  of  1846-47  ;  and  their  jour- 
ney overland  was  marked  by  numerous  interesting  in- 
cidents, of  which  we  have  good  accounts.  Two  of  the 
best  books  ever  written  on  emigrant  life  were  produced 
by  men  of  this  company  ;  ^  and  the  latest  of  all  the  im- 
migrants of  this  year  formed  the  famous  and  unhappy 
Donner  party,  whose  sufferings  will  always  remain  prom- 
inent among  the  tales  of  human  sorrow.  Their  story 
belongs  to  the  winter  of  1846-47  ;  but,  as  we  have  said, 
all  these  events  are  in  effect  prior  to  the  conquest,  of 
which  the  people  concerned  knew  nothing  until  they 
reached  California. 

The  Donner  party,  to  speak  very  briefly  of  this  affair, 
consisted  of  some  eighty  men,  women,  and  children. 
On  the  W3,y  they  were  belated  by  the  difficulties  of 

1  J.  Q.  Thornton's  Oregon  and  California  (New  York,  1849,  2  vols.) 
and  Edwin  Bryant's  What  I  Saw  in  Calif oi-nia  (New  York,  1848). 


44  CALIFORNIA. 

the  new  route  that  they  had  taken,  hy  the  south  side 
of  Salt  Lake.  On  the  Humboldt  River  provisions  ran 
low,  their  forebodings  increased,  and  their  gloom  was 
deepened  by  an  affray,  in  which  one  of  the  best  men 
in  the  train  struck  down  and  killed  a  young  companion, 
during  a  quarrel  caused  by  the  delay  of  a  wagon.  The 
homicide  was  tried,  and  condemned  to  exile  from  the 
train,  in  which  his  own  family  was  traveling.  He  act- 
ually made  his  way  to  California  on  foot,  in  advance  of 
the  train,  and  later  helped  to  relieve  his  family  and  his 
comrades. 

This  affray  was  a  characteristic  result  of  the  nervous 
strain  incident  to  the  old-fashioned  sort  of  emigrant 
life,  among  people  who  are  not  well  accustomed  to  such 
life ;  but  it  was  only  a  prophecy  of  the  demoralization 
that  was  to  follow.  Crossing  the  Humboldt  Desert, 
the  party  reached  the  Truckee  Canon,  where  they  were 
met  by  a  couple  of  Sutter's  Indians,  who  had  been  sent, 
with  mule-loads  of  beef,  to  meet  and  temporarily  to 
supply  them.  After  this,  when  they  had  gone  up  a  little 
beyond  the  present  town  of  Truckee,  they  came  in  view 
of  the  summit  range,  already  covered  with  snow.  The 
sight  destroyed  for  a  time  all  their  good  sense.  In 
wild  and  irregular  efforts  to  cross  the  steep  range  in  this 
snow,  they  lost  two  or  three  days,  and  at  last,  when  they 
had  begun  to  make  up  their  minds  to  the  horrible 
thought  of  wintering  in  the  mountains,  upon  such  pro- 
vision as  they  had  and  upon  such  as  they  could  yet 
make  by  slaughtering  their  animals,  they  lost  still  some 
hours  in  brooding  over  their  fate.  At  this  crisis  a 
great  storm  arose,  and  in  one  fatal  night  their  cattle 
were  buried  in  the  snows  beyond  hope  of  recovery,  and 
they  were  left  to  live  as  they  might  in  the  poor  huts  that 


THE   TERRITORY  AND  THE  STRANGERS.       45 

must  now  be  their  only  refuge.  Sutter's  two  Indians 
remained  with  them,  as  helpless  as  themselves. 

The  subsequent  tale  of  starvation,  of  the  "  Forlorn 
Hope,"  and  of  its  great  effort  to  reach  the  settlements 
in  the  Sacramento  Valley,  —  an  effort  in  which  seven  out 
of  the  twenty-two  in  the  "  Forlorn  Hope  "  succeeded,  — 
of  the  successive  relief  expeditions  from  the  valley,  of  the 
great  loss  of  hfe  in  the  whole  Donner  party,  of  the  re- 
sort to  human  flesh,  and  of  the  final  rescue  in  the  late 
winter  and  in  the  spring  of  1847,  all  this  is  too  long  for 
us  to  tell  here.^  The  story  is  a  very  instructive  one, 
however,  as  an  illustration  of  just  the  strength  and  the 
weakness  that  men  and  women  of  our  century  and  race 
show  under  such  trials  ;  and  it  well  deserves  the  elabo- 
rate treatment  that  it  has  in  later  times  received. 

In  closing  our  account  of  California  as  the  conquest 
found  it,  we  have  yet  two  things  to  mention  that  proved 
in  the  sequel  to  be  of  vast  importance  to  all  concerned. 
One  is  the  system  of  land  grants  that,  in  the  later  years, 
had  more  and  more  developed  itself.  Most  of  the 
ranches  in  California  in  1846  were  held  under  grants 
made  by  the  various  governors  of  California,  —  grants 
legally  subject  to  a  confirmation  from  the  general  gov- 
ernment, although  this  confirmation  was  not  usually 
considered  of  sufficient  importance  to  be  actually  ob- 
tained. The  governors  made  their  grants  under  coloni- 
zation  laws,  and  were  therefore  limited   somewhat  as 

1  The  best  authority  is  McGlashan's  History  of  the  Donner  Party, 
San  Francisco,  1880.  Thornton's  account  in  his  Oregon  and  Califor- 
nia is  also  good.  Sutter's  two  Indians  were  killed  and  eaten  by  the 
starving  members  of  the  "Forlorn  Hope";  and  the  hospitable  Sut- 
•ter,  in  his  latest  statements,  complained  bitterly  of  this  ungrateful 
act,  whereb}"-,  as  he  says,  he  lost  not  only  his  beef  but  his  two  good 
Indians. 


46  CALIFORNIA. 

to  the  number  of  square  leagues  that  could  be  granted 
to  one  person,  and  as  to  the  places  and  conditions  of 
the  grants.  No  exact  survey  was  ever  made  of  the 
tracts  granted,  which  usually  were  defined,  each  as  so 
and  so  many  square  leagues,  to  be  taken  within  given 
outside  boundaries,  the  boundaries  themselves  being  gen- 
erally natural  ones,  or  else  parallels  of  latitude.  Another 
fashion  of  land  gi'ants  existed,  however,  within  the  limits 
of  legally  recognized  pueblos,  or  towns.  Each  of  these 
had,  namely,  in  theory,  a  tract  of  four  square  leagues, 
within  which  its  authorities  might  grant  lots  of  land  to 
actual  settlers.  This  tract  was  of  course  actually  ill  de- 
fined, and  the  nature  of  the  town's  title  to  the  land  was, 
to  our  American  minds,  somewhat  obscure.  Uppn  ,indi- 
vidual  land  titles,  whether  derived  from  ranch  grants 
or  pueblo  rights,  there  frequently  were  imposed,  by  the 
terms  of  the  grant,  special  conditions,  whose  nature  also 
often  seemed  obscure,  since  in  many  cases  they  were 
left  unobserved,  although  the  grant  might  still  receive, 
in  all  later  years,  every  practical  official  recognition. 
On  the  whole,  then,  this  system  of  Mexican  gTants,  sim- 
ple, vague,  and  useful  enough  for  the  purposes  of  a  pas- 
toral people  widely  scattered  over  a  vast  territory,  was 
sure  to  cause  doubt,  vexation,  and  sorrow  whenever  a 
new  and  numerous  population  should  appear,  and  when- 
ever the  land  should  grow  valuable. 

The  other  important  fact  to  be  mentioned  is  that,  be- 
tween 1836  and  1846,  on  the  shores  of  San  Francisco 
Bay,  at  a  considerable  distance  from  the  old  mission  in 
one  direction  and  from  the  presidio  of  San  Francisco  in 
another,  there  had  grown  up  the  beginnings  of  the  mod- 
ern city  in  the  village  of  Yerba  Buena,  named  from  the 
cove  in  front  of  it.     This  little  village  was  from  the 


r 


THE  TERRITORY  AND   THE  STRANGERS.        47 


first  a  trading-place,  whose  dwellers  were  mostly  Amer- 
icans, Englishmen,  and  other  foreigners.  The  Hudson 
Bay  Company  maintained  an  establishment  here  for 
some  years,  but  withdrew  it  in  1845.  The  most  promi- 
nent men  there,  at  the  beginning  of  1846,  were  a  few 
American  merchants.  Grants  of  lots  of  land  had  been 
made  at  Yerba  Buena,  and  this  portion  of  the  already 
legally  existent  pueblo  of  San  Francisco  (whose  bounda- 
ries, had  they  been  then  defined,  would  have  extended 
far  to  the  south  on  the  peninsula)  occupied  in  many 
minds  the  place  of  the  promising  nucleus  of  a  future 
great  city. 

With  this  preliminary  sketch  of  the  country,  of  its 
inhabitants,  and  of  its  strangers,  in  the  days  before  our 
conquest,  we  must  pass  to  the  proper  subject  of  our  dis- 
course, to  the  coming,  to  the  deeds,  and  to  the  fortunes, 
of  our  people  in  California  between  1846  and  1856. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  AMEEICAN  AS    CONQUEROR  :   THE   SECRET  MISSSION 
AND   THE   BEAR   FLAG. 

In  the  strict  sense,  we  Americans  have  seldom  been 
conquerors ;  and  early  California  shows  us  our  na- 
tion in  this  somewhat  rare  character.  A  few  men  did 
the  work  for  us  ;  but  their  acts  were  in  some  cases  di- 
rectly representative  of  the  national  qualities,  and  in 
others  of  far-reaching  influence  on  the  life  and  character 
of  our  people  in  California  in  the  subsequent  days.  For 
both  reasons  these  acts  concern  us  deeply  here,  and  are 
very  instructive  for  our  purposes. 

Moreover,  the  story  of  the  conquest  belongs,  for  yet 
other  reasons,  even  more  to  national  than  to  local  an- 
nals. Our  plans  for  getting  the  coveted  land,  and  the 
actual  execution  of  these  plans,  are  a  part  of  the  drama 
of  the  Mexican  War,  and  our  national  honor  is  deeply 
concerned  in  the  interpretation  that  shall  be  given  to  the 
facts.  As  for  the  treatment  of  these  facts  here,  a  bare 
summary  would  be,  in  the  present  day,  more  vexatious 
than  a  detailed  study  ;  for  a  bare  summary  would  either 
leave  all  the  mysteries  unsolved,  or  else  seem  to  fill  all 
the  gaps  with  mere  dogmas.  The  whole  story  of  the 
conquest  is  turbid  with  popular  legends.  We  cannot 
follow  the  narrative  in  a  simple  way,  and  tell  incident 
after  incident.  The  condition  of  our  knowledge  of  the 
subject  forbids  such  a  purely  narrative  procedure  save 


THE  SECRET  AtlSSlON  AND   THE  BEAR  FLAG.     49 

in  fragments.  What  can  be  given  might  indeed  be  sug- 
gestively entitled  "  Commentaries  on  the  Conquest,"  in 
a  very  literal  sense  of  the  word  commentary.  We  have 
to  employ  numerous  sources  of  information,  and  to  use 
our  best  historical  intelligence.  Yet  we  beseech  the 
reader  not  to  despair  of  finding  in  this  chapter  the  inter- 
est that  properly  belongs  to  a  dramatic  series  of  events. 
These  very  problems  of  the  conquest,  the  mysteries  that 
have  hung  over  parts  of  the  story,  are,  as  we  have  just 
hinted,  themselves  dramatic,  and  the  investigation  seems 
to  me  to  present  many  elements  of  exciting  interest, 
even  apart  from  the  original  fascination  of  the  incidents. 

The  subsequent  history  of  the  American  people  in 
California  turns,  we  have  suggested,  in  large  measure 
upon  the  occurrences  of  the  conquest.  The  prejudices, 
the  enmities,  and  the  mistakes  of  that  unhappy  time 
bore  rich  fruit  in  the  sequel,  determining  to  a  great  ex- 
tent the  future  relations  of  the  new-comers  and  the  na- 
tives ;  and  these  relations  in  their  turn  determined,  in  no 
small  degree,  both  the  happiness  and  the  moral  welfare 
of  the  new-comers  themselves.  We  must  understand 
the  conquest  if  we  are  to  understand  what  followed. 
The  attitude  that  chance,  the  choice  of  one  or  two  rep- 
resentative men,  and  our  national  character  made  us 
assume  towards  the  Californians  at  the  moment  of  our 
appearance  among  them  as  conquerors,  we  have  ever 
since  kept,  with  disaster  to  them,  and  not  without 
disgrace  and  degradation  to  ourselves.  The  story  is 
no  happy  one  ;  but  this  book  is  written,  not  to  extol 
our  transient  national  glories,  but  to  serve  the  true  patri- 
ot's interest  in  a  clear  self-knowledge,  and  in  the  for- 
mation of  sensible  ideals  of  national  gi*eatness. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  the  study  of  historical  fact 
4 


60  CALIFORNIA. 

as  such,  this  history  of  the  conquest  is  one  of  the  stran- 
gest examples  of  the  vitality  of  the  truth.  Never  were 
the  real  motives  and  methods  of  a  somewhat  complex 
undertaking  more  carefully,  or,  by  the  help  of  luck, 
more  successfully,  hidden  from  the  public  than  the 
methods  and  motives  of  certain  of  our  national  agents  in 
California  at  the  time  of  the  conquest  have  for  a  gener- 
ation been  hidden.  And  never  has  accident  more  un- 
mercifully turned  at  last  upon  its  own  creations. 

I.    THE   CONFIDENTIAL   AGENT,   AND   THE  BEGINNING  OP 
WAR. 

As  the  reader  knows  from  the  foregoing,  our  hearts 
were  set  upon  California  as  one  prize  that  made  the 
Mexican  War  most  worth  jBghting.  The  Bay  of  San 
Francisco,  the  future  commerce  of  the  Pacific,  the  fair 
and  sunny  land  beyond  the  Sierras,  the  full  and  even 
boundary  westward,  the  possible  new  field  for  the  ex- 
tension of  slavery,  —  such  motives  were  powerful  with 
some  or  all  of  our  leaders.  The  hasty  seizure  of  Mon- 
terey in  1842,  although  wholly  disavowed  by  our  gov- 
ernment, was  a  betrayal  of  our  national  feeling,  to  say 
the  least,  if  not  of  our  national  plans,  which  no  apology 
could  withdraw  from  plain  history.  Meanwhile,  with 
more  or  less  good  foundation,  we  had  strong  fears  of 
both  England  and  France  as  dangerous  rivals  in  the 
acquisition  of  this  western  land.  In  short,  to  use  the 
phrase  so  often  repeated  by  opponents  of  the  Mexican 
War,  California  formed  a  great  part  of  the  "  Naboth's 
vineyard  "  that  we  coveted,  and  that  for  year's  we  had 
expected  some  day  to  get  by  the  fairest  convenient 
means. 

Nor  was  our  desire  for  California  in  itself  an   evil 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND   THE  BEAR  FLAG.     61 

However  difficult  the  righteous  satisfaction  of  the  desire 
might  prove,  this  desire  was  inevitable.  Our  national 
duty  doubtless  forbade  our  cheerful  surrender  of  the 
Pacific  coast  to  any  European  power.  And  by  sloth, 
neglect,  and  misgovernment,  Mexico  had  done  all  she 
could  do  to  make  her  California  vineyard  bring  forth 
wild  grapes,  and  to  forfeit  her  proprietary  rights  in  its 
soil.  Not  "  Naboth  "  in  this  case  was  the  one  whom  we 
were  most  in  danger  of  wronging,  although  indeed  we 
did  wrong  him  fearfully.  He,  poor  fellow,  was  dis- 
tracted in  his  own  house,  tilled  not  his  own  fields,  and 
often  was  stained  with  blood.  It  was  the  true  proprietor 
of  California  that,  when  we  coveted  the  land,  we  were 
most  apt  to  injure ;  it  was  the  disorganized  but  not 
wholly  unpromising  young  nation  of  a  few  thousand 
cheerful,  hospitable,  and  proud  souls  on  the  Pacific  coast 
that  we  were  especially  bound  to  respect.  With  their 
good-will  if  possible,  and  at  all  events  with  the  strictest 
possible  regard  for  their  rights,  we  were  bound  in  honor 
to  proceed  in  our  plans  and  undertakings  on  the  Pacific 
coast.  The  Mexican  War,  if  deliberately  schemed,  and 
forced  into  life  through  our  aggressive  policy,  would  be 
indeed  a  crime  ;  but  it  would  be  adding  another  great 
crime  if  we  wronged  these  nearly  independent  Califor- 
nians,  while  assailing  their  unkind  but  helpless  mother. 
The  slow  and  steady  growth  of  the  American  settle- 
ments in  California  was  not  the  result  of  any  definite 
plot  on  the  part  of  our  government.  Yet,  as  the  corre- 
spondence of  the  State  Department  with  Consul  Larkin 
shows,  the  government  was  curious  concerning  this  very 
matter  ;  and  the  American  colonization  was  looked  upon 
as  a  fortunate  occurrence  for  us,  and  as  a  process  that, 
if  let  alone  by  the  course  of  events  and  particularly  by 


62  CALIFORNIA. 

European  aggressors,  might  of  itself  suffice,  here  as  in 
Texas,  to  secure  to  us  the  country.  Yet  nobody  in- 
tended to  leave  the  decision  of  the  matter  to  so  slow  a 
process  as  this.  Natural  colonization  would  need  to  be 
assisted. 

During  1845,  and  after  the  accession  of  the  Polk  ad 
ministration,  our  government  was  busily  preparing  for 
the  expected  Mexican  War ;  and  of  course  California 
had  a  large  place  in  the  cabinet  policy.  Buchanan 
was  then  secretary  of  state,  Marcy  of  war,  and  Mr. 
George  Bancroft  of  the  navy.  To  Buchanan  natu- 
rally fell  much  of  the  work  of  dealing  directly  with  Na- 
both ;  while  Mr.  Bancroft  prepared  repeated  instruc- 
tions to  our  naval  squadron  in  the  Pacific,  and  strength- 
ened it  gradually  for  its  work.  Just  how  California 
entered  into  these  administration  plans,  this  there  was 
good  reason  at  the  time  for  keeping  profoundly  secret. 
It  is  helpful,  however,  to  remind  ourselves  that  there 
were,  on  the  surface  of  things,  three  definable  and  not 
unnatural  ways  of  undertaking  the  task.  Possibly  no 
one  was  chosen  ;  possibly  one  was  decidedly  preferred  ; 
possibly  they  were  in  some  way  combined.  But,  stated 
in  a  merely  formal  way,  and  for  our  own  purposes 
sharply  distinguished,  they  were :  (1)  to  wait  until 
war  had  been  forced  upon  Mexico  and  actually  begun, 
and  thereupon  to  seize  the  Department  of  California  as 
an  act  of  war;  (2)  to  undertake,  with  semi-official 
support  of  some  sort,  the  colonization  of  the  country  by 
an  unnaturally  rapid  immigration  of  Americans  into 
it ;  and  (3)  to  take  advantage  of  the  strained  relations 
already  existing  between  California  and  the  mother 
country,  and,  by  means  of  intngue,  to  get  the  land 
through  the  act  of  its  own  native  inhabitants. 


p 


rUE  SECRET  MISSION  AND  THE  BEAR  FLAG.     63 


The  question  as  to  the  use  made  of  these  possible 
plans  is,  however,  at  once  complicated  for  us  by  the  fact 
tliat  the  conquest,  as  it  actually  occurred  in  1846,  seems 
to  express  on  the  face  of  events  a  plan  that  at  least  in 
part  differs  from  all  the  foregoing,  and  that  for  boldness, 
both  physical  and  moral,  would  surpass  them  altogether. 
This  plan  is  the  one  usually  supposed  to  have  found  ex- 
pression in  the  singular  operations  of  the  gallant  young 
Captain  Fremont  with  his  surveying  party,  in  the  spring 
of  1846.  I  must  beg  the  reader  to  approach  this  very 
curious  historical  problem  with  a  mind  quite  free  from 
aU  presuppositions,  since,  as  we  shall  soon  see,  the  his- 
torians of  California  have  always  been  not  only  much 
perplexed  about  the  matter,  but  also  in  some  respects 
misled.  The  whole  truth  about  Captain  Fremont's  op- 
erations in  California  in  1846  has  never  so  far  been 
told.  But,  at  all  events,  whatever  the  truth,  the  appear- 
ances, as  they  have  been  interpreted,  have  certainly 
been  made  to  indicate  a  fourth  plan,  whose  independ- 
ence of  all  moral  considerations  on  the  part  of  the 
government  said  to  have  ordered  it,  and  whose  auda- 
cious vigor,  would  put  it  on  a  level  with  that  Russian 
Central  Asian  policy,  whereof  the  Penjdeh  incident  has 
recently  reminded  the  world.  The  execution  of  this 
supposed  plan  gave  Captain  Fremont  a  national  reputa- 
tion, nearly  made  him,  ten  years  later,  president,  and 
titill  remains  his  most  popular  title  to  distinction. 

To  speak  of  this  supposed  fourth  plaQ  is^  to  plunge  at 
once  into  the  incidents  of  the  conquest  itself,  and  forces 
us  to  begin  with  its  romantic  first  scene,  the  *'Bear 
Flag  Affair."  We  shall  indeed  have  to  return  later  to 
the  point  of  departure,  and  from  the  California  affairs 
of  1846  we  shall  need  to  go  back  to  the  Washington 


54  CALIFORNIA. 

councils  of  1845 ;  but  this  defect  in  our  narrative  is  not 
ours,  but  belongs  of  necessity  to  the  comprehension  of  a 
problematic  and,  in  the  past,  partly  legendary  story. 

The  young  Captain  Fremont,  of  the  topographical 
engineers,  had,  as  we  all  know,  and  as  the  foregoing 
oliapter  has  more  particularly  shown,  acquired  before 
1845  a  great  public  reputation  by  what  most  people 
called  a  kind  of  discovery  of  California,  inasmuch  as 
he  had  described  his  own  journey  thither,  and  in  a  most 
excellent  narrative  had  brought  the  fair  land  before  the 
eyes  of  numberless  readers.  When  he  set  out  in  1845 
on  a  new  expedition,  he  was  certain  to  be  followed  with 
no  little  interest.  This  time  it  was  at  least  his  ostensible 
object  to  explore  the  most  direct  routes  to  the  Pacific 
coast,  and  to  do  topographical  work  in  California.  He 
was  accompanied  by  some  sixty  men,  surveyors,  guides, 
and  assistants.  The  party  were  well  armed,  and  had 
about  two  hundred  horses.  During  the  winter  they 
came  in  two  divisions  through  the  Sierras,  and  when 
tlie  two  divisions  had  found  each  other  once  more,  after 
considerable  difficulty,  the  captain,  almost  alone,  went, 
with  a  passport  from  Sutter,  to  Monterey,  and  asked 
permission  from  Castro  "to  winter"  with  his  party  "in 
the  valley  of  the  San  Joaquin,  for  refreshment  and  re- 
pose." So  he  tells  us  himself,^  and  adds  that  leave  was 
granted,  "and  also  leave  to  continue  my  explorations 
south  to  the  region  of  the  Rio  Colorado."  In  the  last 
days  of  February,  as  he  then  says,  he  began  his  march 
south,  "  crossing  into  the  valley  of  the  Salinas."  The 
purpose  of  going  south  from  the  San  Joaquin  Valley  to 
the  Rio  Colorado  by  way  of  the  Salinas  Valley,  as  if 

1  In  his  defense  before  the  Kearny -Fr(?mont  court-martial,  Sea 
Ex.  Doc.  33,  1st  Session,  30th  Con^'ress,  p.  372. 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND  THE  BEAR  FLAG.     55 

one  should  set  out  to  survey  the  region  from  the  Mo- 
hawk Valley  to  the  Potomac  by  crossing  over  into  the 
Connecticut  River  Valley,  was  neither  at  the  time,  nor 
in  the  immediately  following  investigations,  made  per- 
fectly plain  by  the  friends  of  Captain  Fremont,  although 
he  has  since  given  a  more  definite  explanation.  At  all 
events,  we  have  his  assurance  before  the  Kearny  court- 
martial  that  "the  object  of  the  expedition  was  wholly 
■of  a  scientific  character,  without  the  least  view  to  mil- 
itary operations,  and  with  the  determination  to  avoid 
them  as  being,  not  only  unauthorized  by  the  govern- 
ment, but  detrimental  or  fatal  to  the  pursuit  in  which  I 
was  engaged."  Under  these  circumstances  a  difficulty 
which  now  occurred  with  General  Jose  Castro  was 
especially  unfortunate,  both  for  the  pursuit  in  which 
Captain  Fremont  was  so  far  engaged  and  for  other  in- 
terests. In  the  midst  of  his  march  through  the  Salinas 
Valley,  and  as  a  result  of  petty  occurrences  for  which 
his  rude  men  were  by  no  means  blameless,  Captain  Fre- 
mont received  a  notification  from  Castro  to  depart,  ac- 
companied with  threats  of  violence  in  case  he  should  not 
obey.  The  consequence  is  well  known.  The  young 
captain  "  took  a  position  on  the  Sierra,"  on  the  Gavilan 
peak,  overlooking  the  Salinas  Valley,  "intrenched  it, 
laised  the  flag  of  the  United  States^  and  awaited  the 
approach  of  the  assailants."  But  Castro's  anxiety  to 
assail  such  a  position,  guarded  by  American  riflemen, 
was  more  apparent  than  real.  And,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  gallant  captain  of  the  topographical  party  desired 
only  to  bid  a  temporary  defiance,  and  was  not  anxious 
to  begin  an  aggressive  war.  After  a  few  days  he  re- 
tired, aiming  for  the  San  Joaquin  Valley,  and  retreating 
with  leisurely  stages  northward.     This  was  in  March, 


56  CALIFORNIA. 

1846.  He  passed  through  the  Sacramento  Valley  to« 
wards  Oregon,  and  had  already  reached  the  Oregon 
border,  on  the  banks  of  Klamath  Lake,  when  he  was 
overtaken  by  a  new-comer  from  Washington,  Lieutenant 
Archibald  Gillespie,  who  had  nearly  caught  up  with  the 
main  party,  when  Captain  Fremont,  advised  of  Gilles- 
pie's approach,  turned  back  with  a  few  men  and  met 
him. 

The  meeting  was  a  romantic  one,  but  its  romance 
sounds  very  hackneyed  now,  since  the  tale  has  been  re- 
peated in  so  many  books  of  Western  adventure.  It  is 
enough  to  remind  the  reader  that  the  night  following 
the  meeting  was  enlivened  by  an  attack  made  by  lurk- 
ing Indians,  who  killed  three  of  Captain  Fremont's 
men  before  the  wholly  unguarded  little  company  were 
fairly  awake,  and  who  were  then  promptly  repulsed. 
But,  before  this  incautious  sleep  had  taken  possession  of 
the  camp,  Gillespie  had  delivered  to  the  young  captain 
a  packet  of  family  letters  from  Senator  Benton,  a  letter 
of  introduction  from  the  secretary  of  state  at  Washing- 
ton, and  some  verbal  information  of  an  official  nature. 
Gillespie  had  left  Washington  with  secret  personal  in- 
structions from  the  president,  and  with  a  secret  dis- 
patch, early  in  November,  1845.  This  meeting  on  the 
shores  of  Klamath  Lake  took  place  on  the  evening  of 
the  9th  of  May,  1846.  Gillespie,  after  reaching  Mon- 
terey and  seeing  Consul  Larkin  there,  had  promptly 
sought  out  Captain  Fremont,  whom  the  government  had 
quite  certainly  intended  him  to  meet. 

The  nature  of  the  information  delivered  to  Captain 
Fremont  has  remained  heretofore,  for  the  public,  a 
mystery ;  and  writers  have  vied  with  each  other  in 
guesses,  although  they  have  usually  inferred  that,  at  al) 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND   THE  BEAR  FLAG,     bl 

events,    what    Gillespie    delivered    somehow   officially 
authorized  Captain  Fremont's  subsequent  course. 

The  common  argument  upon  this  topic  insists  espe- 
cially upon  the  peculiar  facts  about  Gillespie's  mission,  — 
facts  made  public  in  some  well-known  later  testimony 
that  will  concern  us  farther  on.  The  lieutenant  had 
come  in  haste  across  Mexico,  had  brought  with  him 
nothing  written  relating  to  his  mission  save  his  letters 
of  introduction  and  the  private  packet  from  Senator 
Benton,  whose  contents,  as  we  shall  see,  are  said  to  have 
been  otherwise  secured  against  intrusion.  But  the 
really  important,  directly  official  part  of  his  mission, 
namely,  his  secret  dispatch,  had  been  committed  to 
memory  by  the  lieutenant,  and  then  destroyed,  before 
he  landed  in  Mexico.  In  California  he  repeated  its 
contents  to  Captain  Fremont.  The  obvious  inference, 
as  people  very  plausibly  say,  is,  in  view  of  the  subsequent 
events,  that  Captain  Fremont  was  instructed  to  use  his 
force  to  attempt  what  was  possible,  with  the  least  need- 
ful compromising  of  his  government,  in  the  way  of  stir- 
ring up  the  American  settlers  and  any  other  available 
persons  against  the  authorities  of  the  Department,  so  as 
to  get  for  us  the  territory  in  advance  of  the  declaration 
of  war.  If  possible,  says  this  commonly  received  story, 
he  was  to  avoid  too  great  prominence  as  an  officer  of 
the  United  States,  but  he  was  by  all  means  to  get  the 
territory.  And  so  here  would  be  the  fourth  plan  above 
mentioned.  If  that  actually  was  our  plan,  which  indeed 
yet  remains  to  be  tested,  then  we  were  not  to  trouble 
ourselves  to  get  first,  in  the  eyes  of  the  world,  a  show  of 
belligerent  authority  ;  nor  were  we,  by  multiplying  the 
numbers  of  our  countrymen  settled  in  the  land,  to  ac- 
quire gradually  a  color  of  right  to  interfere  on  their  be* 


58  CALIFORNIA. 

half ;  nor  yet  were  we,  by  peaceful  intrigue  with  the 
native  government  of  the  already  rebellious  Depart-* 
ment,  to  win  its  leaders  over  to  our  side.  These  meth- 
ods would  all  have  been  morally  dubious.  The  fourth 
method,  if  it  wds  truly  our  method,  would  certainly  call 
for  no  doubts  as  to  its  true  nature  in  the  light  of  the 
moral  law.  According  to  that  method,  we  should  have 
used  the  presence  of  this  gallant  young  officer,  with  his 
armed  force,  to  seize  for  ourselves  without  warning  upon 
an  unprotected  Department,  and  so  in  time  of  peace  to 
gain  for  our  country  the  prize  of  war.  Precedents 
enough  can  indeed  be  found  in  history  for  such  under- 
takings, but  this  plan  would  be,  at  least  in  our  brief 
annals,  not  a  frequently  adopted  device,  nor  one  pre- 
cisely pleasing  to  the  consciences  of  the  more  sensitive 
of  our  countrymen.  Such,  then,  is  one  traditional  un- 
derstanding of  the  mattejj  and  of  course  this  under- 
standing throws  all  the  responsibility  on  the  government. 
The  reader  must  not,  however,  hastily  conclude  that 
Gillespie's  mission  is  to  be  so  readily  understood  ;  for 
possibly,  in  the  absence  of  further  light,  we  may  fail  to 
do  justice  both  to  the  cabinet  and  to  Captain  Fremont, 
—  who,  for  the  rest,  is  usually  considered  as  merely  the 
instrument,  —  unless  we  suspend  our  decision  a  little. 
But  at  all  events,  what  immediately  followed  seems  on 
its  face  to  support  the  theory  that  this  supposed  fourth 
plan  was  the  real' object  of  Gillespie's  mission.  For,  so 
soon  as  the  instructions  had  been  delivered,  Captain 
Fremont  returned  to  the  Sacramento  Valley  ;  and  not 
long  afterwards,  certain  settlers  who  visited  his  camp 
near  the  "  Buttes "  began  to  hear,  and  to  repeat,  both 
to  him  and  to  one  another,  wild  and  alarming  rumors 
of  what  Castro  and  the  Californians  were  intending  to 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND   THE  BEAR  FLAG.     59 

do  to  our  countrymen.  Castro,  they  declared,  had  pro- 
claimed it  as  his  purpose  to  drive  all  Americans  out  of 
the  country,  to  lay  waste  their  farms,  to  raise  the  Indians 
against  them,  to  destroy  them  altogether.  The  captain 
of  the  surveying  party  still  declined  to  accede  to  the 
appeals  of  these  frequenters  of  his  camp  for  immediate 
armed  interference  in  their  behalf,  but  he  gave  them  to 
understand  that,  if  they  were  assailed,  he  would  help 
them.  One  story,  and  in  fact  the  most  authoritative 
one,  also  knows  that  in  secret  he  spoke  more  plainly, 
and  that  his  orders  alone  brought  about  the  first  hostile 
act  of  Americans  against  the  government  of  the  Depart- 
ment. Of  this  we  shall  hear  more  soon ;  but  in  any 
case,  whether  his  words  or  the  courage  of  the  settlers 
produced  the  first  outbreak,  certain  it  is  that  early  in 
June  hostilities  began.  A  band  of  horses,  the  property 
of  the  Californian  government,  was  just  then,  as  it 
chanced,  in  charge  of  a  party  of  men  containing  among 
its  chief  members  Lieutenant  Arce.  This  party  were 
bringing  the  horses  from  Sonoma  to  the  south,  by  a  cir- 
cuitous route,  namely,  by  way  of  Sutter's  Fort,  fording 
the  Sacramento  River  near  that  point.  A  band  of  Amer- 
ican settlers,  some  twelve  in  number,  led  by  one  Mer- 
ritt,  a  frontiersman  of  no  great  reputation  for  all  virtues, 
came  upon  this  party  after  it  had  forded  the  Sacramento 
and  had  passed  southward  some  miles.  The  Americans 
seized  upon  the  body  of  horses,  but  released  the  men, 
who,  quite  unprepared  for  such  an  attack,  had  made  no 
resistance.  The  latter  were  now  charged  to  take  the 
news  to  Castro  at  their  pleasure.  The  marauding 
Americans  sent  the  horses  to  Captain  Fremont's  camp, 
and  then  quickly  reinforced,  as  the  news  flew,  by  settlers, 
who  now,  at  any  rate,  felt  certain  that  hostilities  with 


60  CALIFORNIA. 

Castro  must  come,  rapidly  proceeded  to  Sonoma,  took 
possession  of  the  unguarded  and  sleeping  town  on  the 
morning  of  June  14th,  and  thereafter  sent  as  prisoners 
to  Sutter's  Fort,  under  an  escort,  four  leading  men  of 
the  place.  General  Vallejo,  his  brother  Salvador,  Mr. 
Leese,  and  M.  Prudon. 

The  main  body  of  the  Americans,  remaining  at  So- 
noma, were  quickly  strengthened  by  numerous  additions 
of  a  very  miscellaneous  character.  Some  of  the  settlers 
who  thus  came  were  peaceable  men,  of  high  respecta- 
bility, who  felt  that  now  the  thing  was  once  begun  every 
American  man  must  join  it  in  self-defense.  Others, 
again,  of  good  character,  were  seriously  alarmed  by  the 
aforesaid  rumors,  which  they  had  heard  near  Captain 
Fremont's  camp.  Others  who  came  were  just  such 
rogues  and  vagabonds  as  might  be  expected  under  the 
circumstances.^  At  Sonoma  they  awaited  in  arms  Cas- 
tro's coming,  not  to  mention  the  generally  desired  ap- 
pearance of  their  expected  ally,  Captain  Fremont ;  they 
chose  officers,  helped  themselves  in  the  town  to  what- 
ever supplies  they  needed  for  their  new  military  life, 
and  also  did  what  most  of  all  has  been  .remembered 
concerning  their  brief  life  together  at  Sonoma,  namely, 
they  raised  their  new  flag,  a  standard  of  somewhat  uncer- 
tain origin  as  regards  the  cotton  cloth  whereof  it  was 
made  ;  and  on  it  they  painted  with  berry-juice  some- 
thing that  they  called  a  Bear. , 

II.     THE   BEAR-FLAG    HEROES. 

So  far  we  have  followed  the  results  of  the  acts  of  the 
young  Captain  Fremont,  regarding  the  whole  as  his  un- 

1  My  impressions  on  these  matters  are  founded  in  part  on  MS. 
Itatementfl,  and  in  part  on  documents  hereafter  to  be  quoted. 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND  THE  BEAR  FLAG.      61 

dertaking.  But  in  the  little  interval  that  elapsed  before 
he  appeared  in  person  at  Sonoma,  these  Bear  Flag  men, 
more  or  less  conscious  of  their  independent  responsibil- 
ities, lived  through  a  very  curious  episode  of  California 
history,  —  one  that  seemed  to  some  of  them  afterwards 
ineffably  gloiious,  and  that  in  fact  was  unspeakably 
ridiculous,  as  well  as  a  little  tragical,  and  for  the  coun- 
try disastrous.  Until  Captain  Fremont  considered  him- 
self warranted  in  coming  to  the  help  of  this  Spartan 
band  to  save  them  from  their  not  often  clearly  visible, 
but,  in  their  glowing  fancy,  multitudinous  hosts  of  ene- 
mies, the  Bear  Flag,  men  had  things  all  in  their  own, 
way ;  and  the  gallant  captain  was  directly  responsible, 
at  the  moment,  neither  for  their  glory  nor  for  their 
misbehavior.  They  had,  as  a  rule,  the  wildest  notions 
of  what  they  were  there  to  do.  The  first  party,  left 
behind  when  the  prisoners  were  taken  to  Sutter's  Fort, 
increased  rapidly,  as  we  have  said  ;  but  of  course  these 
additions  were  stragglers,  and  every  man  brought  his 
private  conceptions.  Captain  Fremont  had  come  with 
the  United  States  army  to  liberate  the  country ;  the 
wicked  Spaniards  were  assailing  the  inoffensive  Amer- 
icans at  Sonoma,  who  needed  the  help  of  their  brave 
comrades  ;  the  Americans  had  determined  to  be  free 
from  Spanish  misrule,  and  had  raised  aloft  the  standard 
of  freedom  and  equal  rights ;  in  a  shorter  form,  the  fun 
had  begun,  —  such  were  notions  that  filled  some  men's 
heads.  Others,  as  we  have  suggested,  well  knew  that 
they  were  there  engaged  as  marauders  in  making  quite 
an  unprovoked  assault  on  the  Californians.  One,  Mr. 
Wm.  Baldridge,  in  his  statement  made  for  Mr.  Ban- 
croft's library,  says,  as  he  looks  back  on  those  days : 
**  My  own  sentiments  were  that  making  war  upon  the 


62  CALIFOIiNIA. 

Californians  was  an  act  of  great  injustice ;  but,  as  tin 
deed  had  been  done,  I  preferred  taking  the  risk  of  b*^ 
ing  killed  in  battle  to  that  of  being  sent  to  Mexico  i'l 
irons."  But  Mr.  Baldridge  himself  remained  in  doubt 
for  some  time  after  the  beginning  of  the  difficulties  as 
to  whether  war  would  really  result.  The  whole  afEair, 
to  his  mind,  was  "  brought  on  so  gradually  "  that,  even 
after  the  motley  company  had  spent  a  number  of  days 
together,  few  could  have  given  any  connected  account 
of  what  had  really  brought  them  there.  The  few  that 
could  give  any  connected  account,  however,  are  the  ones 
who  endow  the  whole  affair  with  its  true  humor. 

Among  the  party  who  "  surprised  the  fortress  "  of  So- 
noma, or  who,  in  plain  speech,  waked  up  the  sleeping 
and  defenseless  villagers  on  the  morning  of  June  14,  was 
the  noble-hearted  Dr.  Semple,  a  man  at  that  time  not 
quite  forty  years  of  age,  a  Kentuckian,  about  seven  feet 
high  in  the  body,  and  in  soul,  of  course,  incomparably 
loftier.  He  was  not  exactly  a  typical  frontiersman,  al- 
though he  liked  to  appear  as  such  ;  ^  nor  yet  a  typical 
statesman,  although  he  was  conscious  of  some  approach 
in  spirit  to  that  dignity.  Nor  was  he  a  typical  orator, 
nor  even  a  typical  product  of  the  world's  higher  civil- 
ization, although  at  times  he  seemed  to  himself  to  be  all 
of  these  things.  He  was,  however,  a  man  of  some  nat- 
ural ability,  and  of  an  especially  American  talent  for 
public  affairs,  but  he  was  subject  to  the  chief  character- 
istic follies  of  his  time  and  nation.  He  could  preside 
well  at  a  public  meeting,  and  he  later  made  an  excellent 

1  "  He  is  in  a  buckskin  dress,"  says  his  later  partner,  "Walter  Col- 
ton  {Three  Years  in  California,  New  York,  1852,  p.  32),  writing  but 
a  few  months  after  this  time,  "a  foxskin  cap;  is  true  with  his  rifl^ 
ready  with  his  pen,  and  quick  at  the  type-case." 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND  THE  BEAR  FLAG.     63 

president  of  the  Constitutional  Convention  in  1849. 
He  was  enterprising,  kindly,  and  honest.  As  editor  of 
the  "  Californian,"  in  1846-48,  he  did  good  public  ser- 
vice. But  these  excellences  are  as  characteristic  of 
our  nation  and  of  frontier  training  as  are  his  weak- 
nesses. In  our  truly  American  fashion  he  trusted  in 
liberty,  speech-making,  God,  and  the  press ;  he  was 
boastful,  garrulous,  oratorical,  evidently  putting  all  due 
trust  in  the  public  discussions  of  great  questions  by 
wrangling  fellow-citizens.  When  American  interests 
were  concerned  as  against  foreigners,  he  was  as  blind  as 
the  divine  justice,  only  with  a  slightly  different  result. 
Those  who  knew  him  in  early  days  never  forgot  his  vast 
height,  his  ready  flow  of  speech,  his  righteous,  glowing, 
and  empty  idealism,  his  genial  assumption  of  statesman- 
ship, his  often  highly  serviceable  cleverness,  his  sturdy 
honor  and  uprightness,  his  ambition,  and,  after  all,  his 
ineffectiveness  in  accomplishing  the  objects  of  his  am- 
bition. 

Now  Dr.  Semple  became,  as  fortune  would  have  it, 
the  Thucydides  of  the  Bear  Flag  war.  If  one  objects, 
to  this  assertion,  that  in  fact  there  was  no  real  Bear 
Flag  war,  only  some  pillage  and  skirmishing,  we  should, 
indeed,  have  to  admit  the  objection,  but  should,  in  re- 
ply, leave  it  to  the  reader  to  modify  accordingly  his 
conception  of  the  Thucydides.  But  the  history,  the 
"  Treasure  Forever,"  appeared,  at  all  events,  for  the 
first  in  Semple' s  "  Californian."  ^  It  was  used  by  Ed- 
win Bryant  in  his  -well-known  book,  and  it  has  later 
passed  in  part  into  the  «ounty  histories  and  other  great 

1  I  know  it  in  its  republished  form  in  the  Californian  for  May  29, 
1847  (San  Francisco  Pioneers'  Librarj'  file).  See,  for  Bryant's  sum* 
mary  and  quotation  of  it,  his  What  I  saw  in  California,  p.  286,  sqq. 


64  CALIFORNIA. 

authorities  on  California  annals.  Dr.  Semple  himself 
returned  with  the  convoy  of  the  prisoners  to  Sutter's 
Fort,  but  his  inner  consciousness  was  quite  adequate  to 
the  lofty  story  of  the  Sonoma  doings,  whenever  his  hon- 
est eyes  happened  to  give  him  no  information. 
/  Dr.  Semple,  in  his  account,  felt  "  justified  in  saying 
that  the  world  has  not  hitherto  manifested  so  high  a  de- 
jgree  of  civilization."  For  the  Bear  Flag  party  was  at 
first  "without  officers  or  the  slightest  degree  of  organ- 
ization, and  with  no  publicly  declared  object,"  and  yet 
it  did  no  wrong.  This,  of  course,  is  the  kind  of  disor- 
ganized and  unconscious  filibustering  that  is  always  asso- 
ciated with  the  highest  civilization,  and  one  is  prepared 
to  follow  the  good-hearted  doctor  in  his  further  asser- 
tion that  the  watchword  of  all  the  party  was  "equal 
rights  and  equal  laws."  One  of  the  number,  indeed,  as 
we  learn  from  Dr.  Semple  himself,  interpreted  this 
watchword  very  naturally,  I  fancy,  but  a  little  hastily, 
by  proposing  to  make  a  fair  and  equal  division  of  the 
spoils  found  at  Sonoma ;  "  but  a  unanimous  indignant 
frown  made  him  shrink  from  the  presence  of  honest 
men,  and  from  that  time  forward  no  man  dared  to  hint 
anything  like  violating  the  sanctity  of  a  private  house 
or  private  property."  Dr.  Semple  is,  in  this  assei-tion, 
doubtless  right;  as,  after  he  himself  left  for  Sutter's 
Fort,  hints  were  quite  superfluous.  The  intentions  and 
the  methods  used  were,  of  course,  perfectly  honest ;  as 
some  have  stated  the  case,  one  "  borrowed  supplies  on 
the  faith  and  credit  of  the  Bear  Flag  government,"  a 
**  degree  of  civilization  "  that,  to  be  sure,  was  not  quite 
unprecedented.  But  then,  as  we  see,  divinely  author- 
ized as  their  business  was,  the  Bear  Flag  men  could  not 
expect  to  be  fed  by  the  ravens,  nor  to  gather  pots  of 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND    THE  BEAR  FLAG.     65 

manna  on  the  already  dry  and  yellow  summer  hills 
about  Sonoma.  The  motives  which  prompted  them 
were,  as  Dr.  Semple  says  of  Merritt's  individual  mo- 
tives,^ "  too  high,  too  holy,"  to  permit  them  "  for  a  mo- 
ment to  suffer  private  feelings  to  bias  "  them  "  in  public 
duties."  "  Their  children,  in  generations  yet  to  come, 
will  look  back  with  pleasure  upon  the  commencement  of 
a  revolution  carried  on  by  their  fathers  upon  principles 
high  and  holy  as  the  laws  of  eternal  justice."  But,  this 
being  so,  it  was  morally  required  that  fathers,  for  the 
sake  of  posterity,  should  take  good  care  of  their  own 
health.  And  the  "  credit "  of  the  Bear  Flag  govern- 
ment was  both  necessary  and  (in  view  of  the  absence  of 
weapons  and  pugnacity  among  the  good  people  of  the 
Sonoma  district)  sufficient  to  supply  what  was  needed 
for  this  purpose. 

Dr.  Semple  never  recovered  from  his  admiration  for 
the  heroic  civilization  of  the  Bear  Flag  republic.  In 
later  times  he  liked  to  re-tell  the  story  to  the  innocent 
new-comers  of  the  gold  period  ;  and  he  sincerely  hoped 
to  reach  at  least  the  governorship  of  California  by  vir- 
tue of  the  halo  of  glory  in  which  he  saw,  both  the  great 
"  revolution  "  at  Sonoma,  and  himself  as  once  an  hum- 
ble servant  of  the  Bear  Flag  state.  In  fact,  only  a  year 
later,  when  he  was  Fourth  of  July  orator  at  San  Fran- 
cisco, the  great  events  of  this  brief  period  inspired  him 
to  say,  with  becoming  long-armed  gestures,  and  to  print, 
later,  in  the  "  Californian,"  just  as  I  here  quote  them, 
certain  burning  words  that  must  not  be  forgotten :  "If 
we  conquer  country,  we  have  no  prince  to  claim  it,  or 
to  dictate  laws  for  its  rule ;  no  tyrant  hand  is  laid 
upon  them,  but  the  glorious  American  eagle  spreads  her 
1  See,  in  Bryant,  p.  290. 


66  CALIFORNIA. 

balmy  wings  over  even  a  conquered  people,  and  affords 
them  protection  and  freedom.  .  .  .  Tyrants  trembled 
on  their  thrones,  and  wrong  and  oppression  is  hiding 
their  deformed  heads."  ^ 

But  small  states  are  noted  for  their  large  proportion  of 
great  men,  and  when  Dr.  Semple  went  back  to  Sutter's 
Fort  there  was  left  behind  at  Sonoma  a  second  statesman, 
of  equal  native  genius,  but  of  less  sunny  temperament, 
to  adorn  the  Bear  Flag  repubhc.  This  was  William  Ide. 
Providence  evidently  meant  this  man  to  typify  for  us, 
even  more  than  Dr.  Semple  could  do,  our  national  tal- 
ent and  mission  for  civilizing  the  benighted  Spanish- 
American  peoples  of  this  continent.  His  career,  indeed, 
was  short,  and  was  happily  marked  by  no  violent  atro- 
cities of  his  own  choosing;  and,  in  so  far,  he  is  not 
typical.  But  he  had  the  same  characteristic  and  deli- 
cate appreciation  of  human  rights  and  duties  which 
promised  so  much  success  to  us,  at  that  time,  in  our 
efforts  to  do  good  to  our  neighbors.  He  had  all  our 
common  national  conscience ;  he  was  at  heart  both 
kindly  and  upright,  like  the  great  doctor ;  and,  like  the 
doctor  again,  he  was  an  idealist  of  the  ardent  and  ab- 
stract type.  He  differed  from  Dr.  Semple  chiefly  in  a 
curious  intensity  of  inner  life  that  forbade  him,  save  on 
rare  occasions,  to  speak  his  whole  mind.  His  fellow- 
men  generally  misunderstood  him,  and  he  resolutely 
bore  with  their  misunderstandings,  and  expressed  his 
willingness  to  forgive  them.     But  he  forsook  none  of 

1  Cali/ominn  for  July  10,  1847.  In  the  rival  Yerba  Buena  paper, 
the  Star,  a  correspondent  failed  not  to  notice  the  humorous  side  of 
this  scene:  Dr.  Semple  as  orator,  his  great  form  half  bent  over  his 
manuscript,  his  back  turned  on  the  ladies  of  the  audience,  and  his 
eloquence  unchecked  by  grammatical  consideratioos.  Star  for  July 
17,  Bancroft  Library  file. 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND   THE  BEAR  FLAG,     67 

his  fixed  notions,  and  the  plainest  trait  about  him  was 
his  obstinacy.  People  called  him  a  Mormon  ;  but  that 
story  was  false.  He  was  at  the  time  of  this  affair  not 
very  young,  having  been  born  about  1796. 

His  life  has  been  sketched,  and  his  own  account  of 
his  connection  with  the  Bear  Flag  affair  printed,  by  his 
family,  not  very  long  since,  in  a  privately  circulated 
book,  of  which  I  first  consulted  a  copy  at  Mr.  Bancroft's 
library.^  He  was  a  native  of  Rutland,  Massachusetts, 
had  spent  his  youth  in  Vermont,  and,  later,  had  lived 
in  the  West,  as  farmer,  school-teacher,  and  carpenter. 
He  had  met  with  some  adversities  of  fortune,  which  had 
turned  him,  in  religion,  from  a  transient  love  of  Univer- 
salism  back  to  Orthodoxy  ;  he  had  been  active  some- 
times as  peacemaker  in  Western  land  disputes,  but  he 
had  had  no  practical  experience  in  political  business. 
To  California  he  went  with  the  emigration  of  1845.  In 
the  mountains  he  did  what  gained  him,  later,  some  tra- 
ditional fame  among  the  emigrants,  —  dragging  his 
wagons,  one  by  one,  up  and  over  a  place  on  the  Truckee 
route  that  less  obstinate  men  had  supposed  wholly  inac- 
cessible for  wheeled  vehicles.  In  1846,  after  a  tedious 
winter,  he  and  his  family  went  on  to  a  farm  compara- 
tively high  up  in  the  Sacramento  Valley,  and  that  very 
spring  the  reports  began  to  be  circulated  among  these 
northern  settlers  that  Castro  was  coming  to  drive  all 

1  I  have  since  boupfht  a  copy  of  this  still  uncommon  book,  which 
surely  deserves  a  wide  circulation.  It  has  three  separate  titles,  all 
long,  the  principal  one  beginning :  A  Biographical  Sketch  of  the  Life 
of  William  B.  Ide,  with  a  minute  and  interesting  account  of  etc. 
(the  whole  forming  an  "old-fashioned  title-page,  such  as  presents  a 
tabular  view  of  the  volume's  contents").  The  copj'right  is  dated 
1880,  and  the  book  is  said  to  be  *'  published  for  the  subscribers," 
place  not  mentioned.  Ide's  personal  narrative  begins  with  chap,  ix, 
D.  100,  and  ends  with  chap.  xvi.  on  p.  206. 


68  CALIFORNIA. 

Americans  out  of  the  land.  Ide  hastily  set  out,  "  stirred 
to  the  quick,"  as  one  family  account  has  it,^  and  joined 
the  first  party  that  went  to  Sonoma. 

Yet,  before  setting  out  for  Sonoma,  Ide  had  been 
among  those  settlers  who  went  to  Captain  Fremont's 
camp,  on  hearing  the  alarming  rumors,  in  order  to  get 
his  help.  The  answers  of  the  captain  had  seemed  to  Ide's 
sturdy  and  untutored  soul  vague  and  not  strictly  moral. 
The  captain  seemed,  he  declares,  to  want  the  settlers  to 
do  some  aggressive,  warlike  deed,  and,  in  particular, 
^  to  steal  certain  horses,  and  thus  to  provoke  Castro  to 
hostility.  Thus,  also,  when  the  Mexican  War  should 
begin,  the  settlers  would,  according  to  Ide's  understand- 
ing of  the  plan,  have  had  some  part  in  hastening  the 
conquest.  This  whole  plot,  desiring  the  settlers  to  an- 
ticipate hostilities  under  United  States  instigation,  but 
without  any  open  and  immediate  violation  of  neutrality 
from  Captain  Fremont's  own  party  until  the  thing 
should  be  under  way,  seemed  to  Ide's  honest  wit  unin- 
telligible, especially  if,  as  he  sincerely  thought,  Castro 
had  really  made  this  terrible  threatening  proclamation, 
and  was  soon  coming  in  force.  As  he  understood  the 
thing,  it  was  simple  self-defense.  If  the  settlers,  then, 
could  not  be  helped  by  Captain  Fremont  as  an  officer  of 
the  United  States,  the  captain  might  at  least  remain 
quiet,  and  let  the  settlers  so  do  their  duty  as  independ- 
ently to  earn  their  political  freedom.  With  the  tak- 
ing of  the  horses  Ide  had  no  part.  He  heard  distinctly 
that  Captain  Fremont  meant  to  go  East  at  once,  after 
getting  supplies;  and  when,  later,  he  heard  that  the 
iiorses  were  taken,  and  that  a  party  was  now  setting  out 
for  Sonoma,  he  joined  it,  no  doubt  with  the  full  inten- 
1  Op.  cit.  p.  62. 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND  THE  BEAR  FLAG.     69  . 

tion,  in  case  a  proper  opportunity  should  offer,  of  doing 
his  share  to  make  it,  not  a  part  of  some  dark  plot  to  get 
the  land  for  the  United  States  government,  but  a  move- 
ment for  "  national  independence."  He  hated  Captain 
Fremont's  scheme  of  what  Ide  somewhat  cleverly  calls 
"neutral  conquest.'*  This,  by  the  way,  is  the  only 
clever  phrase  of  Ide's  known  to  me. 

But,  as  even  Ide  felt,  the  first  blow  having  been 
struck,  men  must,  if  possible,  work  together,  and  sus- 
pend their  quarrels.  Cheerfully  he  would  follow  any 
recognized  leader,  in  so  far  as  that  was  necessary  to  se- 
cure American  rights.  Therefore,  on  the  way  down  to 
Sonoma,  it  was  generally  deemed  best  not  to  broach  the 
subject  of  independence.  Nobody,  Ide  tells  us,  knew 
exactly  what  they  were  to  do,  save  that  it  was  to  be 
something  that  would  yet  further  anger  Castro,  that  it 
was  not  to  involve  "  unnecessary  violence,"  and  that  it 
included  the  seizure  of  prominent  men  at  Sonoma.  In 
the  early  morning  of  the  14th  General  Vallejo's  resi- 
dence was  surprised  and  surrounded  ^  by  the  assailants. 
After  some  parley,  Merritt  and  Semple  entered,  with 
one  Knight  as  interpreter.  Vallejo  greeted  them  cor- 
dially, invited  them  to  explain  the  objects  of  the  party 
and  to  draw  up  articles  of  capitulation,  which  he  in  his 
defenseless  position  as  quiet  resident  on  his  own  estate 

1  Baldridge,  in  his  statement,  B.  MS.,  says  of  this  scene:  "When 
the  general  became  fully  aware  of  their  presence,  he  went  out  and 
asked  what  they  wanted,  to  which  no  one  answered,  for  the  good  rea- 
son, I  believe,  that  none  of  them  knew  what  reply  to  give.  He  then 
asked  them  if  they  had  taken  the  place,  to  which  he  was  answered  in 
the  affirmative.  He  then  returned  to  his  room,  but  soon  reappeared 
with  his  sword  girded  on,  which  he  offered  to  surrender  to  them;  but 
as  none  of  the  party  manifested  anj'  disposition  to  receive  it,  he  re- 
turned to  his  room  again  and  replaced  the  sword."  All  this  well  fits 
in  with  ide's  narrative  at  this  point.     S^e  Ide,  p.  124,  op.  cit. 


70  CALIFORNIA. 

would  gladly  sign.^  Meanwhile  he  produced  something 
to  drink,  Ide  tells  us,  and  the  high  commissioners  tar- 
ried long.  The  company  outside,  whose  "high  and 
holy  "  aspirations  were  not  yet,  like  Scrapie's  within  the 
house,  fortified  for  the  day  by  anything  comforting,  be- 
came impatient,  and  chose  one  Grigsby  as  captain,  who 
entered,  and  was  likewise  long  lost  to  view.  At  last 
Ide's  moment  came,  and  he,  the  incorruptible,  ventured 
within  the  enchanted  dwelling,  elected  by  acclamation 
to  inspect  the  negotiations.  He  found  all  the  high  con- 
tracting parties  moderately  drunk,  and  still  poring  over 
the  written  articles  of  capitulation  that  Vallejo,  as  he 
implies,  must  have  arranged  very  much  to  suit  himself. 
Ide  indignantly  seized  them,  and  rushed  forth  to  read 
them  to  the  company  outside.  This  aroused  Grigsby 
j  and  the  others  with  Vallejo,  who  knew,  after  all,  well 
I  enough,  no  doubt,  what  Captain  Fremont  had  privately 
I  instructed  them  to  do  with  General  Vallejo,  and  who, 

i  shortly  afterwards,  although  not  without  a  pretense  of 
hesitation,  announced  their  intention  to  go  back  to  Sut- 
ter's Fort  with  the  chief  prisoners.'  At  this  point,  how- 
ever, questions  began  to  arise  among  the  party  :  "  By 
what  authority  are  we,  after  all,  here  ?  and  has  Captain 
Fremont,  or  anybody  else,  authorized  in  writing  the  ar- 

1  These  details,  otherwise  known,  are  rather  implied  than  expressed 
in  Ide's  narrative. 

2  Vallejo's  articles  of  capitulation,  by  which,  as  I  understand  the 
matter,  he  seems  to  have  intended  to  secure  to  himself  personal  lib- 
erty, on  condition  of  his  promise  to  engage  in  no  hostilities  against 
the  party,  were  thus  promptly  rejected  by  the  somewhat  confused 
brains  of  the  commissioners  themselves  as  soon  as  they  reflected  ;  and 
thus  some  good  drinks  were  wasted.  Here  again  one  sees  a  "degree 
of  civilization  *'  not  quite  unprecedented.  Vallejo,  in  the  sequel,  bit- 
terly complained  of  this,  which  he  chose  to  consider  broken  faith. 
I  gather  these  facts  from  B.  MS.  evidence. 


THE  8ECRET  MISSION  AND  THE  BEAR  FLAG.     71 

rest  of  these  men  ?  "  Merritt  and  Grigsby  would  give 
no  satisfactory  answer.  Semple,  we  may  suppose,  was 
probably  absorbed  in  the  glorious  contemplations  natural 
to  a  man  in  his  position,  not  to  say  condition.  Ide 
gives  us  a  fine  picture  of  the  confusion  that  soon  began 
to  prevail  among  the  heroes  as  they  considered  this 
topic,  and  found,  after  all,  no  clear  answer.^  "  One 
swore  he  would  not  stay ;  another  swore  we  would  all 
have  our  throats  cut ;  another  called  for  fresh  horses ; 
and  all  were  on  the  move,  —  every  man  for  himself." 
The  moment  was  Ide's,  and  he  seized  it,  and  henceforth  he 
gained  that  consciousness  of  historical  significance  which 
inspires  all  his  honest,  sober,  and  infinitely  absurd  tale. 
He  came  boldly  forward,  speaking  plainly.  He  would 
lay  his  bones  here  before  he  would  run  like  a  coward. 
What  were  they  there  for  ?  Was  it  not  for  some  truly 
worthy  object,  namely,  after  all,  independence  ?  Nay, 
said  he  :  "  we  are  robbers,  or  we  must  be  conquerors" 
This  remark  of  Ide's  narrowly  escaped  being  clever ;  but 
it  was  not.  It  was  only  the  outburst  of  his  honest  anxiety 
to  be  and  do  something  noble  and  wondrous.  "The 
speaker,  in  despair,  turned  his  back  upon  his  receding 
companions."  The  crisis  was  soon  past.  They  rallied, 
and,  as  he  says,  elected  him  captain  on  the  spot.  The 
convoy  of  the  prisoners  returned  to  Sutter's  Fort,  and 
he  remained  with  his  gallant  men  on  the  conquered  ter- 
ritory. 

As  for  what  followed,  we  must  take  the  reader  a  little 
into  confidence,  before  going  with  Ide's  tale  yet  another 
step,  by  quoting  again  from  Mr.  Baldridge,  who  remem- 
bers the  thing  thus,  in  his  B.  MS.  :  "  Ide  was  a  strong, 
active,  energetic  man,  and,  in  our  judgment,  was  pos- 
1  Op.  c/t.,p.  127. 


72  CALIFORNIA. 

sessed  of  many  visionary  if  not  Utopian  ideas.  .  .  . 
Consequently,  within  a  short  time  he  was  the  most  un- 
popular man  among  us.  .  .  .  Finally  he  was  seized 
with  a  fit  of  writing,  which  continued  almost  incessantly 
for  several  days,  all  the  time  keeping  his  own  counsel." 
Mr.  Baldridge  does  not  remember  that  Ide  was  consid- 
ered by  his  fellows  as  in  any  sense  captain,  until  after 
this  writing  fit  had  borne  fruit,  when  Ide  called  a  meet- 
ing, read  his  famous  proclamation,  announced  his  plan, 
and  was  then  indeed  elected  by  acclamation,  but  only 
because  everybody  chose  to  regard  the  whole  thing,  for 
the  moment,  as  a  good  joke,  and  because  nobody  fore- 
saw the  consequence  that  would  follow,  in  the  distribu- 
tion of  this  play-captain's  document  broadcast  through 
the  land,  as  the  programme  of  the  Bear  Flag  repub- 
Hc. 

Tde's  memory,  however,  is  different,  being  especially 
colored  by  his  notions  of  what  captaincy  and  a  govern- 
ment were.  As  a  born  statesman,  he  had  his  views 
about  the  true  ideal  state.  Equal  rights  would  of 
course  prevail  in  it.  And  to  this  end,  in  the  first  place, 
there  should  be  in  the  ideal  state  now  about  to  be  born 
no  taxation  of  the  "  virtuous,  industrious,  self-governing 
free  men,"  and  all  compulsory  taxation  should  therefore 
be  inflicted  upon  criminals,  who  were  not  on  that  ac- 
count, however,  to  be  considered  as  receiving  any  license 
for  crime.  Furthermore,  public  servants  should  be 
paid  only  just  enough  to  keep  them  free  from  the  effects 
of  the  love  of  money ;  how  much  this  salary  would 
amount  to  Ide  never  precisely  computed.  And,  as  a  still 
more  important  requisite  of  good  government,  there 
should  be  no  compulsory  military  or  other  service  to 
maintain  the  cause  of  liberty :  "for  that  [tiamely,  com« 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND  THE  BEAR  FLAG.     73 

pulsion]  would  prove  that  its  people  were  unworthy  of  its 
blessings,  or  that  those  blessings  were  no  longer  worth 
enjoying."  ^  A  government  whose  subjects  were  thus 
free  to  do  just  as  they  liked,  save  when  they  were 
guilty  of  actual  crime,  and  whose  criminals,  meanwhile, 
had  therefore  to  fear  only  an  authority  that  possessed 
no  possible  means  of  compelling  any  virtuous  subject  to 
join  in  a  legal  suppression  of  crime,  in  short,  a  govern- 
ment by  general  good  humor,  was  of  course  best  repre- 
sented by  this  Bear  Flag  republic  itself,  with  its  slowly 
increasing  population  of  from  twenty -five  to  fifty  or 
sixty  faithful  and  straggling  subjects,  no  one  of  whom, 
save  Ide,  was  really  quite  aware  of  the  very  existence 
of  his  country.  And  its  government  was  indeed  well 
represented  by  Ide  himself,  whom  nobody  exactly  knew 
to  be  governor.  As  he  tells  us  :  "  By  the  unanimous 
vote  of  the  garrison,  all  the  powers  of  the  four  depart- 
ments [of  government]  were  conferred,  for  the  time 
being,  upon  him  who  was  first  put  in  command  of  the 
fort ;  yet  Democracy  was  the  ruling  principle  that  set- 
tled every  measure,  Vox  Populi  our  rule."  ^  Of  this 
statement  we  may  say  that  the  unanimous  vote  of  the 
garrison  undoubtedly  did  confer  not  only  on  Ide,  but  on 
every  man  alike,  the  powers  of  the  four  departments, 
namely,  as  concerned  his  own  person  ;  and  there  was 
only  a  general  agreement  to  drill  in  company,  under 
certain  chosen  officers,  of  whom  one  was  Lieutenant 
Ford,  soon  to  be  further  mentioned.  So  far  Ide  was 
right.  These  "  self-consecrated  victims  to  the  god  of 
Equal  Rights  "  dwelt  thus  in  peace  together,  and  further- 
more, according  to  Ide,  considered  what  they  might  do 
to  distinguish  themselves  in  any  external  way  from  a 
1  Op.  a«.,p.  145.  2  Page  134. 


74  CALIFORNIA. 

band  of  marauders.  The  raising  of  the  Bear  Flag  was 
one  device.  Ide  himself  proposed  also  the  issuing  of  a 
proclamation,  but  the  populace  of  the  republic,  expect- 
ing Captain  Frenaont  soon  to  interfere,  were  unwilling 
to  authorize  this ;  and  hence  Ide's  democratic  earnest- 
ness and  candor  in  shutting  himself  up  and  writing 
(very  secretly,  as  he  supposed,  and  during  the  small 
hours  of  several  successive  nights)  that  particular 
Vox  Populi  which  he  afterwards  undertook  to  circu- 
late through  California.  Writing  this  proclamation  in 
thirty  or  forty  copies,  nearly  though  not  quite  identical 
in  wording,  helped  to  wear  out  Ide's  constitution,  and, 
as  his  family  declare,  hastened  in  later  years  his  death. 
Ide  also  wrote  to  the  American  naval  commanders  on 
the  coast,  not  for  assistance,  but,  as  he  in  substance  de- 
clares, to  warn  them  to  let  the  new  republic  alone  in  its 
inalienable  rights.  Nor  was  this  all.  The  great  plan 
of  Ide's  free  government  must  be  got  into  the  minds  of 
the  benighted  native  Californians  of  the  Sonoma  dis- 
trict. And  one  of  Ide's  earliest  acts  was  directed  to 
this  end.  For  reasons  of  prudence,  and  others,  easily 
comprehensible,  the  Bear  Flag  party  had  seen  fit,  forth- 
with, to  arrest  a  good  many  of  the  native  citizens  there- 
abouts, and  to  crowd  them  into  what  Ide  calls  the  "  cal- 
aboose." How  consistent  this  was  with  the  "  high  and 
holy  "  aims  of  the  "  revolution  "  Ide  was  fully  able  to 
show.  The  inhabitants  having  been  thus  collected  "  be- 
tween four  strong  walls,"  since  "  they  were  more  than 
twice  our  number,"  Ide  entered  with  an  interpreter,  and, 
as  he  says,  using  the  third  person  himself,  "  he  went  on 
to  explain  [to  them]  the  cause  of  our  coming  together ; 
our  detennination  to  offer  equal  justice  to  all  good  citi- 
zens ;  that  we  had  not  called  them  there  [that  is,  to  the 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND  THE  BEAR  FLAG.     75 

*  calaboose  ']  to  rob  them  of  their  liberty,  nor  to  de- 
prive them  of  any  portion  of  their  property,  nor  to  dis- 
turb their  social  relations  with  one  another,  nor  yet  to 
desecrate  their  religion.  He  went  on  to  explain  to 
them  the  common  rights  of  all  men,  and  showed  them 
that  these  rights  had  been  shamefully  denied  them  by 
those  heretofore  in  authority  .  .  .  that  we  had  been 
driven  to  take  up  arms  in  defense  of  life  and  the  com- 
mon rights  of  man."  "  He  went  on  further  to  say 
that  although  he  had  for  the  moment  deprived  them  of 
that  liberty  which  is  the  right  and  the  privilege  of  all 
good  and  just  men,  it  was  only  that  they  might  become 
acquainted  with  his  unalterable  purpose."  In  short,  he 
declared  that  he  intended  to  give  them  fair  warning  ;  to 
let  them  sign  a  treaty  of  peace  if  they  would ;  nay  even, 
if  they  insisted  steadfastly  upon  being  enemies,  to  let 
them  go  again  and  prepare  themselves  for  the  battle, 
which  he  referred  to  with  "  all  the  fierce,  determined 
energy  of  manner  that  such  an  emergency  was  calculated 
to  inspire."  But  first  he  must  teach  them,  by  this  stay 
in  the  calaboose  and  by  this  lecture,  what  the  inaliena- 
ble rights  of  man  are,  and  what  he  and  his  friends  pro- 
posed to  do.  "  We  are  few,"  he  said,  "  but  we  are  firm 
and  true."  ^ 

The  address,  Ide  confesses,  "was  not  the  twentieth 
part  interpreted ;  "  "  yet  the  importance  of  success  in 
the  measure,  to  persons  circumstanced  as  we  were,  gave 
expression  that  would  have  been  understood  by  every 
nationality  and  tongue  under  heaven  ;  and  the  Spaniard, 
even,  embraced  the  commander  as  he  pronounced  the 
name  of  Washington.  There  was  a  glow  of  feeling 
beaming  from  his  [that  is,  from  the  '  Spaniard's ']  eye 
1  Op.  ct«.,p.  134. 


76  CALIFORNIA. 

that  defied  all  hypocracy  [sic],  as  he  said,  *  Suffer  my 
companions  to  remain  mitil  we  complete  a  treaty  of 
peace  and  friendship,  and  then  go  and  come  as  friends, 
only  that  we  be  not  required  to  take  arms  against  our 
brethren.'  " 

The  scene,  in  its  way,  is  a  monumental  work  of  poor 
Ide's  unconscious  art.  The  pathos  of  this  Yankee  car- 
penter's prematurely  aged  vanity,  as  it  expresses  itself, 
years  later,  in  these  ardent  and  proud  reminiscences  ; 
the  obvious  honesty  and  kind-heartedness  of  his  pur- 
poses ;  the  picture  of  a  fool's  glory  that  he  so  well  paints  ; 
the  impotent  nonsense  that,  as  he  speaks,  his  winged 
words  convey  in  vain  to  the  puzzled  interpreter,  and 
that  these  sleepy,  impassive,  bewildered  countrymen  of 
Sonoma,  with  their  great  soft  black  eyes  fixed  upon 
him,  helplessly  feel  to  mean  some  fearful  threat  of  the 
heretic  robbers  from  the  Sacramento  Valley,  —  all  this 
scene  is  so  perfect  in  itself,  and,  after  all,  so  terribly  rep- 
resentative, that  one  cannot  easily  forget  it.  One  can 
but  speak  for  himself,  and,  for  my  part,  if  ever  I  hear  in 
future  of  our  great  national  mission  on  this  continent  as 
civilizers  of  the  Spanish- American  peoples,  if  ever  I  find 
that  this  mission  has  come  once  more,  as  it  surely  some 
day  will  come,  to  the  surface  of  our  vainglorious  na- 
tional consciousness,  I  shall  be  able  to  think  of  nothing 
but  poor  Ide,  the  self-appointed  Yankee  captain  of  a 
chance  crowd  of  marauders,  standing  benevolently  in  the 
"  calaboose,"  before  the  forty  or  fifty  innocent  and  im- 
prisoned citizens  of  Sonoma,  and  feeling  in  his  devout 
kindliness  that  he  does  God  service,  while  he  bellows 
to  them  an  unintelligible  harangue,  "not  a  twentieth 
part  interpreted,"  about  man's  inalienable  rights  to  lib- 
erty and  equality,  and  while  he  concludes  with  a  refer* 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND   THE  BEAR  FLAG.     11 

ence  to  Washington,  believing  himself,  meanwhile,  to  be 
the  Father  of  the  Bear  Flag  Republic. 

The  proclamation  was  erelong,  without  any  distinct 
disavowal  on  the  part  of  the  Bear  Flag  men,  sent  abroad 
by  messengers  in  the  land  south  of  San  Francisco  Bay. 
It  has  been  printed  frequently  since,  and  is  usually 
thought  to  be  the  real  official  expression  of  the  move- 
ment. The  movement,  however,  could  have  had  no 
one  expression,  since  it  had  no  one  purpose,  but  com- 
prised whatever  chanced  to  result  from  the  original  in- 
stigation of  Captain  Fremont,  and  from  the  individual 
minds  of  the  settlers  concerned.  The  proclamation  as- 
serted that  Castro  had  ordered  the  Americans  out  of  the 
country,  and  had  threatened  their  lives  and  property, 
and  the  lives  of  their  families.  It  attributed  to  the  past 
government  vast  wickedness  and  mischief,  and  it  prom- 
ised great  blessings  from  the  new  government.  It  sug=  j 
gested  Ide's  peculiar  political  ideas,  and  it  made  the  ' 
usual  devout  appeal  to  Heaven,  which,  if  marauders  and 
insurgents  in  their  official  expressions  are  to  be  believed, 
favors  nothing  so  well  at  any  time  as  a  general  scrim- 
mage, and  the  side  that  begins  the  same.^ 

Ide  was,  on  the  whole,  a  character  that  can  well  be 
compared  to  no  creation  in  literature  that  I  happen  to 
know  about,  save  to  the  Bellman,  in  the  Hunting  of  the 
Snark.  Of  the  Bear  Flag  party,  whose  "  high  and 
holy  "  aims  somewhat  resemble  the  aims  of  the  Snark 
hunters,  Ide  was  captain,  very  much  in  the  sense  in 

1  See  for  one  copy  of  the  proclamation  op.  cit.,  p.  138.  It  is  easy 
to  find  some  one  of  the  copies  of  Ide's  proclamation  printed  in  books 
on  California  history.  See  Bryant's  What  I  Saw  in  California,  p. 
290  ;  The  Annals  of  San  Francisco,  p.  92.  None  of  the  standard 
authorities  shows  any  proper  sense  of  the  real  significance  and  insig- 
nificance of  this  paper. 


78  CALIFORNIA. 

which  the  BeUman  was  captain  of  his  resolute  band.  As 
the  whole  of  the  Bellman's  notion  for  crossing  the  ocean 
consisted  in  ringing  his  bell,  so  Ide,  toiling  in  the  small 
hours  over  his  proclamations,  had  similarly  simple  no- 
tions about  sailing  the  ship  of  state.  As  the  Bellman  on 
occasion  referred  to  maxims  "  tremendous  but  trite,"  so 
Ide's  proclamation  contains  several  such  references. 
Ide  was  in  fate  more  like  the  Baker,  in  that  his  Snark 
was  undoubtedly  a  Boojum,  and  in  that  he  accordingly, 
in  due  time,  softly,  if  not  quite  silently,  vanished  away. 
But  as  to  character,  he  was  a  perfect  expression,  only 
in  Yankee  form,  of  the  Bellman ;  and  I  consider  Ide's 
own  account  of  himself  an  indirect  and  unconscious  trib- 
ute to  the  poetical  genius  of  "  Lewis  Carroll,"  who  has 
so  perfectly  and  undesigningly  immortalized  just  his 
type  of  wisdom.^ 

—  While  Ide  governed,  Lieutenant  Ford  made  war. 
The  little  mihtary  incidents  of  these  days,  important  not 
in  themselves,  but  in  their  consequences,  are  easily  to  be 
summarized.  The  Californian  government  actually  had 
no  force  north  of  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  affair.  But  what  could  be  collected 
farther  south  was  promptly  sent,  under  the  command 
of  Joaquin  de  la  Torre,  whose  approach  became  known 
at  Sonoma  June  23d.     Lieutenant  Ford,  the  military 

1  I  have  space  only  to  refer  to  yet  other  monumental  passages  of 
Ide's  narrative :  his  noble  efforts  to  get  the  poor  alcalde  of  Sonoma  to 
understand  the  aforesaid  philosophical  theory  of  the  projected  Bear 
Flag  Constitution  (p.  147),  and  his  difficulties  with  those  of  his  own 
garrison  who  "earnestly  contended  that  a  Spaniard  had  no  right  to 
liberty,  and  but  very  little  right  to  the  enjoyment  of  life  "  (p.  148). 
One  of  the  most  engaging  things  in  the  volume  before  us  is  further- 
more the  innocent  admiration  with  which  the  editors  of  Ide's  narrative,' 
in  their  entire  ignorance  of  the  facts,  regard  the  wildest  of  his  honest 
absurdities. 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND  THE  BEAR  FLAG.     79 

leader  of  the  Bears,  marched  out  with  a  little  force  to 
meet  him ;  and  an  encounter  took  place  about  twelve 
miles  from  San  Rafael.  The  Californians  lost  two  men 
killed,  and  some  wounded,  at  the  very  first  fire,  and, 
di-eading  the  rifles  of  the  Bear  party,  retired  without 
further  struggle.  They  were  of  course  in  no  wise  well 
armed.  Thus  was  shed  the  first  blood  in  "  battle  "  be- 
tween Americans  and  Californians.  The  Bear  men 
received  here  no  hurt.  After  this  skirmish  the  maraud- 
ing settlers  at  Sonoma  were  in  comparative  safety,  as 
no  force  could  for  some  time  be  brought  against  them. 
But  Captain  Fremont,  who  had  received  news  of  their 
danger,  reached  Sonoma  with  his  whole  force  on  June 
25th.  Although  his  instigation  had  begun  the  insur- 
rection, he  was  not  to  win  any  special  military  renown 
in  this  first  part  of  the  conquest ;  for  the  Californian 
force,  which  he  now  actively  pursued,  cleverly  eluded 
him  by  a  ruse,  and  escaped  across  the  bay.  De  la 
Torre,  namely,  sent  a  false  message,  purporting  to  be 
from  Castro,  and  announcing  an  imminent  attack  upon 
Sonoma.  This,  sent  in  the  hands  of  an  Indian,  fell,  as 
was  intended,  into  Captain  Fremont's  possession,  and 
led  him  back  from  his  pursuit  to  protect  the  threatened 
town.  De  la  Torre  had  time  to  cross  to  Yerba  Buena 
before  the  mistake  was  discovered.  A  detachment  of 
Captain  Fremont's  men  later  crossed  the  bay  to  Yerba 
Buena,  took  prisoner  the  captain  of  the  port,  spiked 
some  guns  at  the  presidio,  and  returned. 

These  irregular  hostilities  must,  we  have  said,  be 
judged  by  their  effects,  and,  as  we  now  yet  further  add, 
by  the  effects  which  chance  later  warded  off,  but  which 
for  the  moment  seemed  imminent.  The  whole  country 
towards  the  south,  as  far  as  the  tale  penetrated,  was 


80  CALIFORNIA. 

alarmed  and  exasperated  at  the  news,  which  was,  of 
course,  naturally  exaggerated  in  the  telling.  It  was  not 
that  the  physical  mischief  done  had  actually  been  enor- 
mous, but  that  the  injustice  of  the  attack  seemed  to 
the  native  population  so  obvious,  and  the  designs  indi- 
cated by  it  so  appallingly  dangerous  to  their  happiness 
and  their  rights.  The  mystery  of  the  affair  made  it 
worse.  Ide's  proclamation  was  circulated  in  manuscript 
form  south  of  the  bay,  and  that  pretended  to  announce 
a  new  independent  republic.  But  Captain  Fremont's 
name  was  quickly  associated  by  rumor  and  fact  with  the 
business,  which  was  therefore  believed  to  be  the  out- 
come of  American  official  intrigue.  An  irregular  guer- 
rilla warfare  appeared  certain.  If  the  Americans  were 
treacherous  enough  to  seize  Sonoma  without  warning,  to 
deliver  over  its  inhabitants  to  confinement  and  their 
property  to  marauders,  what  were  they  not  capable  of 
doing  further?  The  worst  that  unfriendly  suspicion 
could  have  feared  of  the  new-comers  now  seemed  re- 
alized. The  longing,  among  those  of  the  Californian 
politicians  who  desired  English  protection,  for  an  imme- 
diate English  interference  on  their  behalf,  waxed  very 
strong  at  the  news ;  and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that, 
if  fortune  had  delayed  the  outbreak  of  the  Mexican 
War,  or  the  coming  of  the  news  of  it,  but  a  little  longer, 
and  had  thus  delayed  the  interference  of  the  American 
fleet,  the  English  commander  of  the  Juno,  on  the  Cal- 
ifornia coast,  or  possibly  Admiral  Seymour  himself,  of 
the  Collingwood,  who  arrived  during  July,  and  who,  for 
all  we  know,  might  have  arrived  almost  or  quite  as  soon 
in  any  case,  would  have  been  the  object  of  overtures 
from  prominent  men  for  an  acceptance  on  the  part  of 
his  government  of  a  protectorate  of  California,  which 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND  THE  BEAR  FLAG.     81 

might  then  have  declared  its  independence  of  Mexico. 
Whether  these  overtures  would  have  been  supported 
or  not  by  the  body  of  the  distracted  Californians,  and 
whether  any  English  commander  would  have  been  jus- 
tified at  that  time  by  his  government  in  accepting  such 
proposals,  or  whether  our  navy  would  have  passively 
permitted  the  thing,  are  matters  that  belong  not  yet  to 
our  tale.  We  mention  them  now  only  to  suggest  that, 
in  case  there  was,  as  a  well-known  tradition  will  have  it, 
an  imminent  English  plot  to  get  possession  of  Califor- 
nia, the  irregular  revolution  instigated  by  Captain  Fre- 
mont was  the  best  possible  means  that  could  have  been 
chosen  to  frighten  and  to  plague  the  Californians  into 
the  arms  of  England  at  once.  Somewhat  suspicious 
seems,  therefore,  this  well-known  tradition,  when  it  re- 
peats from  volume  to  volume  and  from  decade  to  dec- 
ade the  thoughtless  assurance  that  the  Bear  Flag  affair 
saved  California  from  the  rapacity  of  England.  But  of 
the  tradition  and  the  truth  about  this  matter  we  shall 
hereafter  speak  further. 

Meanwhile,  as  we  must  add,  to  explain  in  part  the 
undying  hatreds  that  grew  out  of  this  unhappy  Bear 
outbreak,  these  hostilities  did  not  pass  by  without  some 
of  the  natural  attendants  of  such  affairs.  Early  in  the 
days  at  Sonoma,  two  of  the  Bear  Flag  men,  Cowie  and 
Fowler,  were  taken  prisoners  by  an  irregular  party  of 
Californians,  and  then  murdered.  Stories,  whose  foun- 
dation, as  it  appears,  cannot  be  tested  with  certainty, 
because  the  records  of  trustworthy  eye-witnesses  are 
lacking,  are  to  be  found,  as  most  readers  know,  in  the 
later  American  accounts,  attributing  to  these  irregular 
Californians  not  only  the  murder,  but  also  the  previous 
torture,  of  these  two  men.  I  fancy  that  we  must  regard 
6 


82  CALIFORNIA. 

the  affair,  at  all  events,  as  a  sort  of  lynching,  and  must 
judge  it  by  remembering  how  our  Western  farmers 
would  have  treated  any  marauding  Mexicans  who  had 
been  caught  after  they  had  assailed  defenseless  Ameri- 
can towns  and  robbed  peaceful  inhabitants.  Our  West- 
ern lynchers  often  torture  as  well  as  kill.  But  this  act, 
surely  in  no  sense  justifiable,  however  natural  the  furi- 
ous exasperation  of  the  assailed  Californians  may  have 
made  it  at  the  moment,  was  far  outdone  by  men  among 
the  Americans,  who,  during  Captain  Fremont's  pursuit 
of  Torre  to  San  Rafael,  murdered,  in  cold  blood,  near 
that  place,  three  defenseless  non-combatants,  men  of 
known  respectability,  and  of  no  connection  with  the 
hostilities.  These  were  the  Haro  brothers  and  Berey- 
essa.  The  act  was  causeless,  and  can  receive  no  shadow 
of  justification,  and  it  was  not  done  by  any  irregular 
party.     As  to  the  responsibility  I  have  nothing  to  add. 

Very  happily  this  scene  of  the  Bear  Flag  war  was 
closed  before  further  bloodshed  could  follow,  by  the 
coming  of  news  of  hostilities  on  the  Rio  Grande,  and 
by  the  consequent  raising  of  the  American  flag  by  Com- 
modore Sloat  at  Monterey.  The  latter  had  left  Mazat- 
lan  on  the  first  receipt  of  this  news,  had  come  in  his 
flag-ship  to  join  his  vessels  that  were  already  on  the 
coast,  and,  in  obedience  to  his  previously  received  of- 
ficial instructions,  had  prepared  to  seize  upon  Monterey 
and  San  Francisco  harbors.  He  had  indeed  hesitated 
some  days  at  Monterey  without  action,  but  on  July  7th 
the  deed  was  done.  Sloat  thereupon  sent  orders  to  the 
Portsmouth  at  San  Francisco  to  seize  that  port,  and  dis- 
patched a  courier  to  convey  intelligence  of  his  acts  to 
Captain  Fremont,  who,  having  nobody  to  fight  on  the 
north  shore  of  the  bay,  had  returned  for  the  time  with 


THE   SECRET  MISSION  AND   THE  BEAR  FLAG.     83 

his  main  force  to  Sutter's  Fort.  As  soon  as  the  courier 
reached  the  captain,  the  latter  set  out  for  Monterey 
with  his  force.  And  thus  the  operations  of  the  Bear 
Flag  affair  became  merged  in  those  of  the  conquest 
proper. 

Yet,  ere  bidding  farewell  to  the  conquerors  of  the 
fortress  of  Sonoma,  we  must  call  attention  to  one  doc- 
ument which  especially  illustrates  their  "  high  and  holy  '* 
aims.  It  was  written,  indeed,  just  after  the  regular 
conquest  had  been  proclaimed,  and  is  the  more  charac- 
teristic for  that.  It  was  written  by  the  redoubtable 
Grigsby,  who  had  been  left  in  command  at  Sonoma 
under  the  new  order  of  things,  and  was  addressed  to 
Captain  Montgomery,  in  San  Francisco  Bay.^ 

CuABTEL,  Sonoma,  July  16,  1846. 
To  Captain  Montgomery,  U.  S.  Ship  Portsmouth. 

Dear  Sir,  —  Yesterday  I  received  Lieutenant  Bartlett's 
letter.  .  .  .  The  Spaniards  appear  well  satisfied  with  the 
change.  The  most  of  them  have  come  forward  and  signed 
articles  of  peace.  Should  they  take  up  arms  against  us,  or 
assist  the  enemy  in  any  way,  they  forfeit  their  lives,  prop- 
erty, etc.  All  things  are  going  on  very  well  here  at  pres- 
ent. .  .  .  There  are  some  foreigners  [i.  e.,  Americans  or  Eng- 
lishmen] on  this  side  that  have  never  taken  any  part  with 
us.  I  wish  to  know  the  proper  plan  to  pursue  with  them  : 
whether  their  property  shall  be  used  for  the  use  of  the  garri- 
son or  not  (they  are  men  of  property).  We  wish  your  advice 
in  all  respects,  as  we  are  a  company  of  men  not  accustomed 
to  such  business.  .  .  .  There  are  some  poor  men  here  that 
are  getting  very  short  of  clothing.  I  wish  to  know  in  what 
way  it  might  be  procured  for  them.  .  .  . 

Your  obedient  servant, 

John  Grigsby,  Captain. 

1  Sen.  Ex.  Doc.  1,  2d  Sess.  29th  Congr.,  p.  665. 


84  CALIFORNIA. 

in.    SLOAT,   THE   ADMINISTRATION,   AND    THE    MYSTERT? 
OF   THE    SECRET   MISSION. 

Such  is  the  outer  history  of  the  "  Bear  Flag  Revolu- 
tion." But  we  must  enter  into  more  details  before  we 
can  hope  to  find  the  true  interpretation  of  the  move- 
ment. 

So  much,  however,  is  to  be  noted,  ere  we  proceed,  as 
to  the  relation  of  the  movement  to  Sloat's  action. 
Events  seemed  to  bring  the  Bear  Flag  affair  into  close 
connection  with  the  official  conquest  proper.  But  we 
should  blunder  sadly  if  we  supposed  that  Sloat  had 
been  in  any  case  instructed  to  cooperate  with  Captain 
Fremont  or  with  the  settlers,  or  that  the  Bear  Flag 
affair  was  in  any  sense  an  official  signal  for  the  inter- 
ference of  our  squadron.  Of  Sloat's  instructions  we 
shall  speak  in  due  time,  but  they  very  certainly  were  not 
framed  with  any  apparent  reference  to  Captain  Fre- 
mont's conduct  or  to  Gillespie's  mission.  Sloat  was  to 
wait  until  he  should  hear  from  the  Atlantic  of  actual  war 
between  the  United  States  and  Mexico.  Then  he  was 
to  seize  upon  the  Californian  ports.  He  had  no  warn- 
ing that  his  work  was  to  be  lightened  by  previous  armed 
operations  on  land,  and  he  was  in  fact  sadly  perplexed 
by  the  news  that  he  heard  from  the  north  when  he 
reached  Monterey  on  the  2d  of  July.  Whatever  the 
official  secret  of  Captain  Fremont's  action  was,  Sloat 
was  not  in  it.  To  judge  the  Bear  Flag  affair,  we  must 
then  consider  it  in  and  for  itself,  and  not  in  connection 
with  its  accidental  good  fortune  as  an  undertaking  that 
received  a  timely  support  from  the  navy.  The  first  suc- 
cess that  it  desired  and  rightfully  might  hope  to  get  was 
only  a  success  as  an  independent  and  apparently  un- 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND   THE  BEAR  FLAG.      85 

official  revolution  in  California.  This  success  once 
reached,  California  might  pass  over  into  our  hands 
whenever  the  war  came  ;  but  until  the  war  had  been 
formally  begun,  Captain  Fremont  had  no  reason  to  ex- 
pect the  support  of  his  distant  government.  The  navy 
simply  knew  nothing  about  his  plans,  and  had  no  sort  of 
authority  to  help  him ;  and  the  wide  deserts  separated 
him  from  all  possible  military  support.  The  boldness  of 
such  an  undertaking,  with  Captain  Fremont's  sixty  men, 
and  with  only  the  doubtful  aid  of  the  settlers,  must 
surely  strike  the  reader  forthwith ;  the  mysterious  care- 
lessness of  our  government  in  utterly  failing  to  provide 
for  Captain  Fremont  any  effective  armed  cooperation 
from  our  squadron  must  add  to  our  perplexity  in  case 
this  fourth  plan  actually  was  the  real  plan  ;  and  what 
we  are  hereafter  to  learn  of  the  official  instructions  to 
the  squadron  itself,  as  they  were  later  printed  in  congres- 
sional documents,  will  only  make  our  problem  harder. 
^But  it  is  at  least  necessary  to  remember  that  the  show 
of  official  support  which  Commodore  Sloat's  seizure  of 
Monterey  would  seem  to  have  given  to  Captain  Fre- 
mont was  in  fact  but  an  accidental  outcome  of  other 
events,  and  was  not  in  the  least  contemplated  by  our 
government  in  its  official  instructions  to  the  navy.  Nor 
yet  may  one  fancy  even  that  these  seemingly  independ- 
ent undertakings,  namely.  Captain  Fremont's  and  Com- 
modore Sloat's,  were  so  well  timed  by  the  government 
that,  although  the  official  instructions  of  the  squadron 
made  no  mention  of  the  expected  operations  on  land, 
the  actual  cooperation  of  Sloat  with  the  Bear  Flag  move- 
ment was  silently  predetermined  at  Washington.  That 
hypothesis,  natural  as  it  may  so  far  seem,  is  absolutely 
excluded  by  evidence  tliat  we  shall  in  due  time  present 


86  CALIFORNIA.     . 

There  had  been  no  provision  for  such  cooperation,  and, 
if  accident  had  delayed  the  outbreak  of  the  Mexican 
War  a  little  longer,  or  if  the  news  had  failed  to  reach 
Sloat  when  it  did,  the  Bear  Flag  affair  would  have  de- 
veloped itself  into  all  the  natural  results  of  irregular 
warfare,  without  any  support  or  amelioration  through 
the  interference  of  the  navy.  The  settlers,  in  numerous 
individual  cases,  if  not  as  a  body,  would  have  dealt  with 
the  Californians  after  the  fashions  and  customs  of  irreg- 
ular combatants,  and  the  Californians  would  have  done 
what  they  could  to  thwart  the  rather  inadequate  force  in 
the  field  against  them.  One  may  feel,  indeed,  fairly 
confident  that,  with  their  poor  arms  and  their  lack  of 
discipline,  the  Californians  could  not  easily  have  de- 
stroyed the  resolute  little  Bear  Flag  army ;  but  one 
can  also  feel  quite  sure  that  the  Bear  Flag,  in  view  of 
the  small  force  supporting  it  and  of  the  bitter  passions 
that  it  at  once  aroused,  could  not  possibly  have  given  to 
the  distracted  land  peace  and  good  order.  The  fact 
must  be  understood,  therefore,  that  if  the  cabinet  au- 
thorized Captain  Fremont's  operations,  it  took  no  sort 
of  pains  to  prevent  this  province  from  falling  into  the 
hopeless  anarchy  of  irregular  warfare,  until  such  time  as 
the  course  of  events  on  the  remote  Atlantic  coast  should 
have  led  to  the  beginning  of  legitimate  war,  and  the 
news  hereof  should  have  been  able  to  reach  Sloat's 
squadron.  Surely  the  reader  will  agree  that  the  prob- 
lem as  to  how  any  government  could  thus  risk  its  own 
most  obvious  interests  becomes  not  a  little  puzzling.  If 
we  were  to  get  California,  we  surely  needed  to  get  it  as 
little  as  possible  marred  by  anarchy,  by  destruction  of 
property,  or  by  the  just  anger  of  its  inhabitants.  Yet 
Captain  Fremont's  movement,  strong  enough  to  begin 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND    THE  BEAR  FLAG.    87 

an  irregulaf  warfare,  but  certainly  not  nearly  strong 
enough  to  govern  and  pacify  this  immense  territory, 
would  seem,  if  the  fourth  plan  is  the  real  one,  to  have 
been  authorized  or  ordered  in  Washington,  and  to  have 
been  left  without  any  immediate  provision  for  adequate 
support !     Surely  something  is  wrong  here. 

IV.    THE   MYSTERY   AS   FORMERLY  EXPOUNDED  BY 

CAPTAIN  Fremont's  friends. 

But  possibly,  in  insisting  so  exactly  as  we  have  done 
upon  the  consequences  and  significance  of  this  supposed 
fourth  plan  for  the  acquisition  of  California,  we  may 
appear  to  be  overlooking  a  somewhat  different  hypothe- 
sis as  to  this  Bear  Flag  affair,  an  hypothesis  whose  very 
existence,  as  we  shall  later  see,  enables  us  better  to  un- 
derstand the  real  conduct  of  Captain  Fremont,  although 
in  itself  the  hypothesis  is  utterly  unfounded.  The 
friends  of  Captain  Fremont,  namely,  did  not,  either  then 
or  later,  admit  our  fourth  plan  as  the  sole  cause  of  his 
action.  They  often  used  forms  of  speech  that,  on  the 
one  hand,  seemed  to  put  more  personal  responsibility 
for  what  happened  upon  the  young  captain's  own 
shoulders,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  made  his  conduct  less 
the  result  of  Gillespie's  mission  than  of  the  circumstances 
of  the  place  and  of  the  moment.  He  had  to  do  what 
he  did,  they  have  sometimes  said,  not  so  much  because 
his  secret  instructions  counseled  just  such  acts,  as  be- 
cause Castro,  by  warlike  movements  and  threats,  forced 
him  to  take  the  field  to  save  the  American  settlers  from 
imminent  pillage  and  massacre.  We  must  speak  of  this 
explanation  a  little,  because  it  has  been  so  often  ad- 
vanced, is  so  audaciously  inaccurate,  and  is,  in  conse- 
quence, so  instructive. 


88  CALIFORNIA. 

In  its  first  form,  the  story  that  the  Bear  Flag  oper- 
ations were  forced  upon  Captain  Fremont  by  the  ag- 
gressions of  Castro  reached  the  public  through  Senator 
Benton  himself,  whose  statement  was  founded  upon  let- 
ters received  at  home  from  the  senator's  gallant  son-in- 
law.  The  letters  themselves  were  published  in  the 
"  Washington  Union,"  in  the  autumn  of  1846,  but  have 
somehow  come  to  be  almost  totally  forgotten  by  the 
public.  They  are  very  valuable  for  us  ;  yet,  as  they 
disappeared  in  the  busy  life  of  the  moment,  and  gave 
place  to  what  Senator  Benton  had  found  in  them,  we 
must  not  reveal  their  contents  just  yet,  but  must  repeat 
at  this  point  the  curious  account,  tainted  with  geograph- 
ical absurdity,  which  the  venerable  senator  sent  out  to 
the  world  as  an  official  statement  of  Captain  Fremont's 
acts  and  motives.^ 

"  At  the  middle  of  May,"  says  the  senator,  "  Captain 
Fremont,  in  pursuance  of  his  design  to  reach  Oregon, 
had  arrived  at  the  great  Tlamath  [Klamath]  Lake,  in 
the  edge  of  the  Oregon  Territory,  when  he  found  his 
further  progress  completely  barred  by  the  double  ob- 
stacle of  hostile  Indians,  which  Castro  had  excited 
against  him,  and  the  lofty  mountains,  covered  with  deep 
and  falling  snow.  These  were  the  difficulties  and  dan- 
gers in  front.  Behind,  and  on  the  north  bank  of  the 
San  Francisco  Bay,  at  the  military  post  of  Sonoma,  was 
General  Castro  assembling  troops,  with  the  avowed  ob- 
ject of  attacking  both  Fremont's  party  and  all  the 
American  settlers.  Thus,  his  passage  barred  in  front 
Yy  impassable  snows  and  mountains  ;  .  .  .  menaced  by 

1  I  quote  in  the  following  Senator  Benton's  letter  as  given  in 
Cutts,  Conquest  of  New  Mexico  and  California  (Philadelphia,  184:7)j 
p.  152. 


ECRET  MISSION  AND  THE  BEAR  FLAG.     89 

a  general  at  the  head  of  tenfold  forces  of  all  arms ; 
the  American  settlers  in  California  marked  out  for  de- 
struction on  a  false  accusation  of  meditating  a  revolt 
under  his  instigation  ;  his  men  and  horses  suffering 
from  fatigue,  cold,  and  famine  ;  and  after  the  most 
anxious  deliberation  upon  all  the  dangers  of  his  position 
and  upon  all  the  responsibilities  of  his  conduct.  Captain 
Fremont  determined  to  turn  upon  his  pursuers  and  fight 
them  instantly,  without  regard  to  numbers,  and  seek 
safety  for  his  party  and  the  American  settlers  by  over- 
turning the  Mexican  government  in  California." 

It  is  indeed  entertaining  enough  to  conceive  of  Castro 
at  Sonoma  "  menacing  "  Captain  Fremont  on  the  banks 
of  Klamath  Lake,  and  "  pursuing  "  him  at  a  distance 
of  some  three  hundred  miles  in  an  air  line,  or  more 
than  four  hundred  by  the  trails,  especially  when  one 
remembers  that  the  country  between  was  for  most  of  the 
way  an  uninhabited  wilderness,  for  one  third  of  the  way 
a  mass  of  mountains,  and  almost  wholly  unknown  to 
Castro,  who  had  no  burning  desire,  one  may  be  sure,  to 
have  any  close  intercourse,  not  to  speak  of  intrigues, 
with  the  Klamath  Lake  Indians.  For  the  rest,  Castro 
was  himself  in  fact,  not  at  Sonoma,  but  alternately  at 
Monterey  and  at  Santa  Clara,  or  in  their  vicinity,  all 
through  this  time,  and  Sonoma  itself  was  wholly  inno- 
cent of  any  armed  force.  But,  however  that  may  be, 
nobody  will  now  suppose  that  the  gallant  young  captain 
himself  could  have  felt  driven  to  bay  on  the  Klamath 
shore  by  the  mythical  army  of  ten  times  his  force  at 
Sonoma.  The  venerable  statesman's  documents  and  his 
eloquent  imagination  were,  in  their  combination,  for  this 
once,  a  trifle  unhistorical. 

But   in    Senator    Benton's   "  Thirty  Years'  View," 


90  CALIFORNIA. 

chapter  clxiv.,  the  story  is  once  more  told.  At  the 
approach  of  Gillespie,  Captain  Fremont,  now  no  more 
driven  to  bay  on  the  Klamath  shores  by  the  overwhelm- 
ing odds  at  Sonoma,  appears  in  a  somewhat  different 
light  from  the  one  cast  upon  him  by  Senator  Benton's 
previous  account.  The  situation,  although  still  requir= 
ing  Senator  Benton's  noblest  eloquence,  is  less  tragic. 
Although  surrounded  by  hostile  Indians,  Captain  Fre- 
mont is  depicted  as  happy,  and  as  comparatively  peace- 
ful in  his  work  until  the  romantic  coming  of  the  brave 
Gillespie.  He  reads  the  heavens  with  his  telescope, 
gauges  the  temperature  of  the  air  with  his  thermometer, 
sketches  with  his  pencil "  the  grandeur  of  mountains," 
paints  "  the  beauty  of  flowers,"  and  with  his  pen  writes 
down  "  whatever  is  new  or  strange  or  useful  in  the 
works  of  nature."  In  short,  he  pursues  science,  shuns 
war,  and,  if  we  may  add  to  Senator  Benton's  eloquence 
a  more  modern  phrase,  he  shows  that  his  capacity  for 
innocent  enjoyment  is  just  as  great  as  any  other  man's. 
But  Gillespie  came.  The  letters  and  messages,  with 
their  contents,  are  described  much  as  in  the  testimony 
before  the  Claims  Committee.  But  Senator  Benton 
adds  significantly  that  "  it  was  not  to  be  supposed  that 
Lieutenant  Gillespie  had  been  sent  so  far,  and  through 
so  many  dangers,  merely  to  deliver  a  common  letter  of 
introduction  on  the  shores  of  Tlamath  Lake,"  and  points 
out  that  what  was  communicated  bore  the  "  stamp  of 
authority." 

While  the  obvious  design  of  this  is  once  more  to  give 
to  the  Gillespie  mission  a  large  share  in  determining 
what  followed.  Senator  Benton  still  lays  stress  upon  the 
violent  measures  of  Castro,  as  furnishing  at  least  the 
immediate  occasion  for  Captain  Fremont's  action.     "  He 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND  THE  BEAR  FLAG.     91 

[Captain  Fremont]  arrived,"  says  the  senator,  "  in  the 
valley  of  the  Sacramento  in  the  month  of  May,  1846, 
and  found  the  country  alarmingly  and  critically  situated. 
Three  great  operations  fatal  to  American  interests  were 
then  going  on  and  without  remedy  if  not  arrested  at 
once.  These  were:  (1.)  The  massacre  of  the  Americans, 
and  the  destruction  of  their  settlements,  in  the  valley  of 
the  Sacramento.  (2.)  The  subjection  of  California  to 
British  protection.  (3.)  The  transfer  of  the  public  do- 
main to  British  subjects.  And  all  this  with  a  view  to 
anticipate  the  events  of  a  Mexican  war  and  to  shelter 
California  from  the  arms  of  the  United  States.  The 
American  settlers  sent  a  deputation  to  the  camp  of  Mr. 
Fremont  in  the  valley  of  the  Sacramento,  laid  all  these 
dangers  before  him,  and  implored  him  to  place  himself 
at  their  head  and  save  them  from  destruction.  General 
Castro  was  then  in  march  upon  them.  The  Indians 
were  incited  to  attack  their  families  and  burn  their 
wheat-fields,  and  were  only  waiting  for  the  dry  season 
to  apply  the  torch.  Juntas  were  in  session  to  transfer 
the  country  to  Great  Britain  ;  the  public  domain  was 
passing  away  in  large  grants  to  British  subjects ;  a  Brit- 
ish fleet  was  expected  on  the  coast ;  the  British  vice- 
-consul, Forbes,  and  the  emissary  priest,  Macuamara, 
I'ruUng  and  conducting  everything,  and  all  their  plans 
ISO  far  advanced  as  to  render  the  least  delay  fatal.'* 
I  Under  these  circumstances,  which  are  all  thus  repre- 
sented as  then  known  to  him.  Captain  Fremont,  much  as 
he  regretted  his  necessity,  had  no  alternative.  "  He  de- 
termined to  put  himself  at  the  head  of  the  people  and 
save  the  country." 

Of  this  account  one  must  first  say,  in  passing,  that 
mere  dates  show  the  impossibility  of  any  knowledge  con- 


92  CALIFORNIA. 

cerning  the  so-called  ** Macnamara  scheme"  on  the  part 
of  Captain  Fremont  at  the  moment  of  his  action,  and 
that,  whatever  these  supposed  "  English  schemes  "  were 
(whereof  we  shall  say  much  later),  they  could  have  had 
no  share  in  authorizing  or  in  hastening  the  aggression  of 
June,  1846.  So  that  all  this  portion  of  Senator  Benton's 
account  is  quite  without  historical  significance  for  our 
present  prohlem,  which  is  simply  why  Captain  Fremont 
moved  when  he  did.^  We  must  therefore  here  dismiss 
these  English  schemes  for  the  present,  and  speak  oi 
them  hereafter,  as  supplying  a  supposed  justification, 
after  the  fact,  for  Captain  Fremont's  energy. 

But  the  intended  massacre  of  the  Americans,  and  the 
purposed  burning  of  their  wheat-fields,  —  what  of  all  that 
as  motive  and  justification  for  the  hostilities  ?  The 
only  way  to  solve  this  problem  is  to  find  out  in  how  far 
any  genuine  knowledge  or  fear  of  immediate  hostilities 
from  Castro  was  present  to  well-informed  American  set- 
tlers. Motive  this  hostility  was  for  Captain  Fremont  in 
so  far  as  he  believed  it  to  be"  an  immediate  source  of 
danger.  If  he  had  it  not  in  mind  as  a  pressing  peril; 
then  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  messages  brought  by 
Gillespie  were  alone  able  to  furnish  vaHd  motive  for  his 
operations,  and  then,  one  would  surely  suppose,  the 
fourth  plan  will  have  established  itself  as  the  actual 
one.     Yet  we  must  not  anticipate.     At  all  events,  the 

1  With  these  two  accounts  of  Senator  Benton's  one  should  compare 
Captain  Fremont's  own  explanations,  tlie  one  before  the  Congressional 
Claims  Committee,  when  he  applied  for  the  payment  of  the  expenses 
of  the  Californian  battalion  (see  Sen.  Rep.  75,  1st  Sess.  30th  Congr., 
pp.  12  and  13),  and  the  other  before  the  Kearny  court-martial  (Sen. 
Doc.  33,  30th  Congr.,  1st  Sess.,  vol.  v.  pp.  373,  374).  The  two  expla- 
nations  are  both  of  them  cautious,  but  tend  to  convey  the  impression 
that  both  the  secret  instructions  and  Castro's  hostility  coiiperated  to 
produce  the  action. 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND  THE  BEAR  FLAG.     93 

curious  tendency  just  noticed,  sometimes  to  magnify  and 
sometimes  to  leave  in  ambiguous  indefiniteness  the  im- 
portance of  Castro's  hostility,  suggests  that  the  friends 
of  the  hero  of  our  tale  may  well  have  felt  somewhat  op- 
pressed by  the  delicacy  and  the  secrecy  of  the  official 
information  'that  a,ccording  to  the  fourth  plan  would  be 
the  real  motive  of  his  conduct ;  so  that  they  may  hence- 
forth have  felt  it  their  duty  to  the  government  to  shield 
the  latter  by  cautious  and  doubtful  language.  Should 
this  in  the  end  appear  to  be  their  motive,  doubtless  the 
reader  will  appreciate  their  discretion  and  their  delicate 
patriotism,  and  will  judge  them  generously. 

V.     CALIFORNIAN   HOSTILITY   AS   A   CAUSE   FOR   WAR. 

Meanwhile,  however,  the  bare  matter  of  fact  whereto 
this  reported  hostility  as  a  motive  for  Captain  Fremont's 
conduct  must  be  reduced  may  be  investigated  under 
two  heads.  First  we  may  ask  whether  Castro  actually 
did  gather  any  armed  force  to  assail  the  American  set- 
tlers. And  secondly  we  may  ask  whether  the  great 
body  of  peaceable  American  settlers  believed  at  the  mo- 
ment in  the  imminence  of  his  attack  so  as  to  be  aroused 
or  terrified.  To  inquire  into  these  matters  is  not  to 
cast  a  shadow  on  the  just-mentioned  discretion  and  pa- 
triotism that  may  have  forced  General  Fremont's  friends 
ever  since  to  put  too  strong  an  accent  upon  the  reported 
hostility  of  Castro.  By  our  questions  as  to  Castro's 
conduct  we  shall  only  put  that  discretion  and  that  patri- 
otism in  a  stronger  light,  in  case,  indeed,  the  fourth 
plan  actually  proves  in  the  end  to  be  the  government 
plan,  as  heretofore  we  have  seemed  to  find  very  proba* 
ble.  Only  in  case  the  fourth  plan  were  not  the  gov- 
ernment plan  should  we  feel  these  questions  delicate. 


94  CALIFORNIA. 

Well,  as  to  the  first  of  our  two  questions,  the  answer 
is  very  simply  a  flat  negative.  Whatever  Captain  Fre- 
mont's informers  may  have  told  him  at  the  time,  there 
certainly  was  no  truth  in  the  stories  about  Castro  and 
his  anti- American  warlike  demonstrations.  Since  Cap- 
tain Fremont's  own  departure  for  Oregoii  in  March, 
Castro  had  made  no  preparations  to  drive  any  Amer- 
icans from  the  Department.  He  had  issued  no  procla- 
mation ordering  the  settlers  to  be  expelled  or  threaten- 
ing them  with  expulsion.  He  was  not  marching 
against  them  with  an  army;  he  had  no  force  at  So- 
noma, none  anywhere  on  the  north  shore  of  San  Fran- 
cisco Bay.  He  had  no  present  intention  of  sending  a 
force  thither,  or  of  prosecuting  in  that  region  any  hos- 
tile purpose.  He  feared,  indeed,  a  coming  American 
invasion  at  some  time  in  the  future  ;  but  he  knew  that 
he  could  now  do  little  or  nothing  to  avert  it,  and  mean- 
while he  was  busy  in  his  quarrels  with  Governor  Pio 
Pico  and  the  south.  He  made  some  warlike  prepara- 
r  tions ;  but  they  were  chiefly  against  Pio  Pico,  partly 
with  remote  reference  to  possible  invasions.  He 
plotted;  but  the  American  settlers  of  the  Sacramento 
Valley  were  not  in  danger  from  his  plots,  nor  were  they 
the  ones  plotted  against.  His  controversy  with  Pio 
Pico,  had  he  been  let  alone  by  the  Americans,  might 
indeed  have  resulted  in  an  open  combat ;  but  then  all 
he  would  have  asked  of  the  Americans  for  the  moment 
would  have  been  neutrality  and  indifference.  Captain 
Fremont's  operations  were  therefore  in  fact  purely  ag- 
gressive, and  would  have  been  explicable  as  a  defensive 
movement  solely  on  the  ground  that  Captain  Fremont 
had  been  misinformed  about  Castro.  But,  as  we  shall 
also  later  see,  he  was  not  so  misinformed  by  any  respect 
able  and  trustworthy  person. 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND   THE  BEAR  FLAG.     95 

All  this  is  a  question  of  fact,  and  can  easily  be  decided 
by  any  on^  who  is  now  well  informed  about  the  situation 
of  that  moment.  Mr.  John  S.  Hittell  has  spoken  quite 
sensibly  and  plainly  on  the  matter,  so  far  as  he  goes  into 
it  at  all,  in  his  "  History  of  San  Francisco,"  pp.  102, 
103,  where  he  merely  says  that  the  "  unmeaning  threats  of 
a  few  ignorant  native  Calif ornians  irritated  and  perhaps 
alarmed  the  Americans  north  of  San  Francisco  Bay  ;  " 
and  adds,  with  regard  to  Castro's  supposed  proclama- 
tion, that  "the  governor  of  California  had  issued  no 
such  proclamation,  nor  was  such  a  matter  "  as  the  forci- 
ble expulsion  of  the  American  settlers  "thought  of." 
Mr.  Hittell  has  long  been  in  a  position  to  judge  this 
matter  intelligently,  although  he  gives  in  his  book  no 
proofs.  But  the  documentary  evidence  in  full  concern- 
ing the  situation  is  in  Mr.  Hubert  Howe  Bancroft's 
hands.  I  have  no  concern  in  this  book  with  the  details 
of  the  native  politics  of  the  moment,  and  the  reader,  if 
so  disposed,  must  look  for  many  such  tales,  as  I  do  my- 
self with  a  good  deal  of  interest  and  curiosity,  to  that 
forthcoming  volume  of  Mr.  Bancroft's  history  which  will 
deal  with  this  period,  and  to  Mr.  Theodore  Hittell's  an- 
ticipated discussion  of  the  same  period  in  his  forthcoming 
History  of  California ;  yet  enough  can  be  shown  for  our 
purpose  by  a  few  considerations.  Mr.  Thomas  Larkin, 
the  consul,  was  busy  just  then  in  giving  the  government 
at  Washington  every  attainable  fact  about  the  state  of 
the  country.  He  was  well  acquainted  with  Jose  Castro, 
with  the  whole  town  of  Monterey,  and  with  all  the  prom- 
inent Californians.  He  was,  strange  to  say,  engaged 
himself  at  the  moment  of  the  outbreak  in  intrigues  to 
secure  —  but  of  that  hereafter.  Enough,  he  knew  about 
the  Californians,  by  daily  intercourse,  just  what  the  cap- 


96  CALIFORNIA. 

tain  of  the  surveying  party  at  the  Buttes  could  not  know. 
In  his  voluminous  correspondence  with  the  State  De- 
partment there  is  a  great  deal  bearing  on  the  situation 
just  at  this  juncture.  By  Mr.  Bancroft's  courtesy,  I 
was  able,  when  in  California,  to  examine  this  correspond- 
ence in  the  Bancroft  library  volumes  of  the  archives  of 
Larkin's  consulate,  volumes  whose  nature  the  previous 
chapter  has  described.  I  have  since  received,  by  the 
courtesy  of  Secretary  Bayard,  official  copies  of  some 
of  these  letters,  as  the  originals  are  preserved  in  the 
State  Department,  and  I  have  these  copies  before  me  as 
I  write.  The  facts  thus  shown  by  Consul  Larkin's  per- 
sonal and  daily  knowledge  are  utterly  inconsistent  with 
the  supposed  hostile  preparations  of  Castro.  It  is  quite 
impossible  that  when  all  the  birds  in  the  Sacramento 
Valley  were  twittering  the  news  of  the  approach  of 
Castro  from  bough  to  bough,  and  when  his  proclamation 
was  already  in  the  hands  of  the  settlers,  these  sources 
of  information  should,  although  authentic,  have  pos- 
sessed and  delivered  news  that  was  sealed  to  a  man  who 
was  on  the  spot  at  the  time,  in  daily  personal  intercourse 
with  the  very  Califomians  most  concerned  themselves, 
and  who  was  on  the  alert  to  get  information. 

Other  documentary  evidence  in  Mr.  Bancroft's  hands 
shows  plainly  enough  what  Castro  did  mean  to  do.  He 
meant  to  thwart  and  defeat  Governor  Pio  Pico  in  re- 
gard to  matters  at  issue  between  them.  The  possibili- 
ties of  a  future  American  invasion  were  indeed  known, 
both  to  him  and  to  Pico,  as  well  as  to  all  the  other 
prominent  Californians,  and  fear  was  felt.  Preparations 
were  freely  discussed  and  begun,  to  be  ready  in  time  for 
such  an  invasion  if  it  ever  should  come.  But  these 
preparations  not  only  had  no  immediate  reference  to  the 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND    THE  BEAR  FLAG.     97 

Sacramento  Valley  settlers,  but  also  were  not  in  an  ad- 
vanced state.  One  lacked,  for  instance,  powder.  One 
lacked,  above  all,  money.  And  one  spent  one's  time 
meanwhile  in  petty  domestic  quarrels,  such  as  brought 
one  but  little  nearer  to  a  real  state  of  readiness.  At 
such  a  time,  for  a  busy  politician,  with  plenty  of  ene- 
mies at  home,  as  it  were  in  his  own  household,  with  very 
limited  military  resources  accessible  to  him,  with  fears 
for  the  future,  with  doubts  and  native  intrigues  dark- 
ening the  air  all  about  him,  —  for  such  a  man,  who  had 
so  recently  declined  to  attack  Captain  Fremont's  party, 
now  deliberately  to  undertake  to  go  out  into  the  Sac- 
ramento Valley  and  borrow  yet  more  trouble  at  the 
mouths  of  the  settlers'  rifles  would  have  been  the  most 
absurd  and  impossible  of  ideas.  Only  ignorance  of  the 
real  situation  could  have  attributed  to  Castro  any  such 
design.  It  is  perfectly  certain  that  he  had  no  such  de- 
sign. 

There  was  then  no  danger  to  the  settlers  from  Castro. 
But  did  the  settlers  perchance  beheve,  in  their  own 
minds,  however  mistakenly,  that  there  was  danger? 
And  were  their  fears  the  basis  of  Captain  Fremont's 
determination  ? 

Mr.  Wm.  N.  Loker,  one  of  the  settlers  at  Sutter's 
Fort,  and  later  an  officer  in  the  California  Battalion, 
testified  before  the  Claims  Committee  (see  p.  40  of  their 
Report)  that  he  actually  posted  in  public  sight  himself, 
and  at  Sutter's  Fort,  a  translation  of  the  "banda" 
whereby  the  authorities  ordered  all  American  settlers 
out  of   the  country  on  pain   of  a   forcible   expulsion.^ 

1  Id»  preserved  a  copy,  as  he  tells  us,  of  an  unsigned  American 
proclamation  that  was  handed  to  himself  on  June  8,  "  between  the 
hours  of  10  and  11  a.  m.,"  as  he  very  exactly  adds.    (See  the  Ide 
7 


98  CALIFORNIA.  I 

Now,  3.8  we  have  seen,  no  such  "banda"  was  ever 
officially  promulgated  at  all,  and  what  Loker  posted 
must  have  been,  if  anything,  a  forgery.  The  question 
before  us  is.  Were  such  forgeries,  or  other  false  state- 
ments, whatever  their  source,  actually  believed  among  , 
the  better  informed  American  settlers  ?  And  did  the 
behef  of  the  settlers  influence  the  captain  to  act? 
These  questions  seem  to  me  to  admit  of  a  demonstrably 
negative  answer.  I  shall  here  lay  no  stress  on  the 
curiously  unsatisfactory  nature  of  the  parol  evidence  on 
this  topic  that  was  presented  to  the  congressional  com- 
mittee at  Washington.  It  is  indeed  true  that  those 
Americans  who  were  in  a  position  to  know  best  about 
the  actual  state  of  the  Californian  public  were  not  the 
men  to  whom  the  Claims  Committee  appealed  for  infor- 
mation as  to  the  current  American  behef  about  the  sit- 
uation of  the  moment  of  the  outbreak ;  but  then,  to  be 
sure,  not  everybody  could  be  got  in  Washington  as  a 
witness  at  just  the  desired  time.  One  must  remark,  how- 
ever, in  passing,  that  much  of  the  parol  evidence  of 
settlers  that  was  produced  at  Washington  is  historically 
quite  worthless,  expressing  the  vague  and  not  disinter- 
ested views  of  men  who  either  were  in  no  position  to 
understand  the  facts,  or  were  themselves  decidedly  in- 
Family  Narrative^  p.  113.)  It  read :  *'  Notice  is  hereby  given  that  a 
large  body  of  armed  Spaniards  on  horseback,  amounting  to  250  men, 
have  been  seen  on  their  way  to  the  Sacramento  Valley,  destroying  the 
crops,  burning  the  houses,  and  driving  off  the  cattle.  Captain  Fr^ 
mont  invites  every  freeman  in  the  valley  to  come  to  his  camp  at  the 
Buttes  immediately  ;  and  he  hopes  to  stay  the  enemy,  and  put  a  stop 
to  his" —  ("Here,"  says  Ide,  also  on  p.  113,  "the  sheet  was  folded 
and  worn  in  two,  and  no  more  is  found.")  The  genuineness  of  this 
memorandum  seems  certain.  Of  course  this  proclamation  itself,  who- 
ever  wrote  it,  was  utterly  false  in  its  statements  about  the  "  armed 
band." 


r  THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND   THE  BEAR  FLAG,     99 

disposed  to  let  other  people  understand  the  facts.  But 
such  testimony  we  need  not  even  criticise.  Ours  ar- 
ranges itself  under  several  heads. 

In  the  first  place,  then,  well-informed  and  trustworthy- 
settlers,  men  of  property  and  position  at  that  time,  of 
honorable  career  and  notable  reputation  since,  have 
given  in  more  recent  times  testimony  to  the  point.  Es- 
pecially satisfactory  is  the  elaborate  refutation  of  the 
traditional  view  about  Castro's  hostility  which  I  have 
before  me,  as  I  write,  from  the  pen  of  Mr.  John  Bid- 
well,  of  Chico,  Cal.,  a  man  whose  position  then  as  a 
trusted  assistant  of  Sutter  at  the  fort,  and  whose  resi- 
dence in  the  country  for  some  years  before  that  date, 
give  us  good  ground  for  thinking  him  well  informed ; 
while  his  high  public  reputation  in  CaUfornia  ever  since 
.  those  times  also  assures  us  that  we  have  in  him  an  up- 
right, cautious,  and  able  observer.  For  Mr.  Bancroft's 
library,  Mr.  Bidwell  prepared  a  lengthy  statement, 
which  I  have  used  in  the  former  chapter,  and  which 
also  treats  of  this  time.  But  in  addition  to  this,  by  the 
kindness  of  the  editor  of  the  "  Overland  Monthly,"  Miss 
M.  W.  Shinn,  I  have  obtained  a  copy  of  a  MS.  now  in 
her  possession,  a  part  of  certain  records  on  early  Cali- 
fornia history  that  Rev.  Mr.  Willey  has  lent  to  her  for 
her  own  use.  This  MS.  answers  questions  of  Mr.  Wil- 
ley's,  put  to  General  Bidwell,  about  the  Bear  Flag 
affair,  and  is  full  and  definite.  It  was  not  at  first  in- 
tended for  print,  but  for  the  Rev.  Mr.  Willey's  use.  I 
use  it,  by  permission,  here. 

For  a  long  time,  says  Mr.  Bidwell,  in  fact  almost  ever 
since  he  reached  the  country,  settlers  in  the  valley  were 
accustomed  to  tell  and  hear  all  sorts  of  wild  stories 
about  the  Californian  government  and  its  plans,  about 


i 


100  CALIFORNIA. 

^  coming  war,  or  about  some  attempted  expulsion  of 
Americans,  or  about  a  fight  for  independence.  These 
rumors  would  gather,  from  time  to  time,  a  number  of 

'  people  at  Sutter's  Fort,  who  would  talk  it  all  over,  and 
I  again  disperse  quietly,  to  be  aroused  once  more  in  six 
/  months  or  a  year.     Especially  the  floating  population 

/  of  the  territory,  landless  men  of  no  fixed  dweUing 
place,  trappers,  deserters  from  ships,  often  precious  ras- 
cals, would  enjoy  and  spread  this  warlike  talk.  They 
,  especially  hated  all  Calif ornians,  who  well  returned  the 
hatred.  "  But  these  rumors,"  says  Mr.  Bidwell,  "  had 
this  effect,  Americans  had  learned  to  be  always  on  guard. 
They  —  I  mean  the  more  considerate  class  —  had 
learned  to  weigh  signs  of  danger,  and  put,  to  a  consid- 
erable extent,  a  true  value  on  them.  Those  who  had 
property,  and  had  settled  in  the  territory,  were  gener- 
ally in  favor  of  peace ;  while  those  who  had  little  or  no 
interest  here  were,  as  a  rule,  always  ready  and  anxious 
for  war."  By  1846  these  Americans  of  all  classes  were 
already  too  numerous  to  have  any  serious  fear  of  being 
driven  out,  and  the  Californian  leaders  were  known  to 
them  as  men  of  too  much  shrewdness  to  attempt  such  a 
movement. 

Mr.  Bidwell,  in  discussing  the  feeling  at  the  moment 
of  the  outbreak,  then  goes  on  to  say  that,  after  Captain 
Fremont's  departure  for  Oregon,  in  March,  "all  was 
quiet  again."  "  There  were  no  hostile  demonstrations, 
or  even  threats,  to  my  knowledge.  We  in  the  Sacra- 
mento Valley  felt  entirely  secure.  Others  dispersed 
throughout  the  country  nearer  the  coast  were  wholly 
exposed  in  case  of  danger,  and  would  have  fled  to  Sac- 
ramento on  the  least  notice.  But  there  was  not  a  whis- 
per of  trouble.     Americans  would  surely  have  given  the 


THE  8ECRET  MISSION  AND   THE  "LEAR  f]/,JXi.:  '  JO'i  ' 

alarm  at  Sacramento  long  before  Arce  reached  there 
with  the  horses,  had  Castro  intimated,  by  word  or  act, 
a  purpose  to  expel  them."  "  Is  it  not  strange,"  Mr. 
Bidwell  adds,  in  another  connection,  "  that  if  Castro 
was  about  to  make  war  against  American  immigrants 
or  settlers,  and  these  so  excited  about  it  as  to  ask  Fre- 
mont's aid,  I  should  have  known  nothing  about  it,  and 
been  looking  for  a  saw-mill  site,  with  only  one  man,  and 
he  proposing  to  find  his  way  alone  to  Sonoma  ?  "  Mr. 
Bidwell  was  at  the  moment  absent  from  Sutter's  Fort 
for  two  or  three  days,  with  Dr.  Semple,  searching  for 
a  site  for  that  saw-mill  which,  when  afterwards  built, 
was  the  occasion  of  the  gold-discovery.  "  The  valley," 
when  he  set  out,  just  before  the  seizure  of  Area's  horses, 
"  was  peace  and  quiet.  No  settler,  the  truth  of  history 
compels  me  to  say  it,  had  any  apprehension  of  danger. 
I  was  making  ready  to  start  to  Los  Angeles  on  business." 
We  must  indeed  remember  that  Mr.  Bidwell  is  not 
an  authority  for  those  settlers  who  were  just  then  near 
the  camp  at  the  Buttes,  or  directly  under  Captain  Fre- 
mont's or  Lieutenant  GiUespie's  influence,  men  such  as 
later  testified  before  the  Claims  Committee.  That  these 
may  have  had  sincere  fears  in  many  cases  and  at  this  |J/ 
time  is  certain.  But  Mr.  Bidwell  is  good  authority  for 
the  state  of  feeling  at  Sutter's  Fort.  "  There  was,'* 
then,  "  no  excitement,  no  danger,  till  Fremont  began . 
the  war  by  sending  the  party  which  attacked  Arce, 
captured  his  horses,  and  let  him  and  his  escort  go  with 
a  defiant  message  to  Castro.  If  Americans  really  were 
in  danger,  is  it  possible  to  conceive  a  more  unwise 
thing  than  the  beginning  of  war  at  such  a  time  and 
under  such  circumstances,  without  giving  them  notice  ?  '* 
"  Therefore,"  concludes  Mr.  BidweU,  "  I  say  that  Fre- 


,  i|P$,;  , ' '  CALIFORNIA. 

mont,  and  he  alone,  is  to  be  credited  with  the  first  act 
of  war.  Truth  compels  me  to  say,  the  war  was  not  be- 
gun in  California  in  defense  of  American  settlers.  It 
may  be  there  was  a  drawn  sword  hanging  over  their 
heads,  but  if  so  they  did  not  know  it,  and  Fr(5mont 
must  have  the  credit  of  seeing  it  for  them.  Fremont 
began  the  war  :  to  him  belongs  all  the  credit ;  upon  him 
rests  all  the  responsibility." 

One  must  carefully  limit,  as  we  have  tried  to  do,  the 
extent  to  which  Mr.  Bidwell  is  a  satisfactory  authority. 
He  could  not  know,  of  course,  as  much  about  Castro's 
designs  and  movements  as  was  known  at  the  camp  in  the 
north,  because  he,  like  the  American  consul  at  Monterey, 
was  nearer  to  Castro,  and  consequently  farther  from 
the  only  genuine  sources  of  traditional  knowledge  about 
Castro  than  were  Captain  Fremont's  excited  informants 
northward  at  the  Buttes,  or  on  Bear  River.  But  Mr. 
Bidwell,  in  his  ignorance,  may  certainly  be  supposed  to 
represent  the  state  of  mind  of  those  average,  respectable 
American  settlers,  who  had  fixed  interests  in  the  coim- 
try,  and  no  extraordinary  sources  of  information  about 
the  imminent  dangers  that  threatened.  As  for  the  evi- 
dence in  the  claims-pamphlet  about  the  reports  at  Sutter's 
Fort,  Mr.  Bidwell's  testimony  shows  how  much  that  is 
worth. 

I  have  seen,  in  Mr.  Bancroft's  collection  of  state- 
ments, others,  of  good  authority  and  much  value,  that 
give  the  same  impression  of  the  situation. 

In  the  second  place,  however,  as  proving  that  not 
good  information  of  danger,  but  private  purposes  of  his 
own,  led  Captain  Fremont  to  act  as  he  did,  we  have  the 
important  and  demonstrable  fact  that  Captain  Fremont 
took  no  trouble  to  verify  the  stories  of  Castro's  hostility 


SECRET  MISSION  AND  THE  BEAR  FLAG.    103 

i 

before  acting,  but,  on  the  contrary,  behaved  precisely 
like  a  man  who  felt  authorized  to  act  on  his  own  initia- 
tive. For  there  was  one  person  who  could  have  told 
him  the  truth ;  and  that  was  Larkin,  with  whom,  for 
the  rest,  Gillespie  was  bound  by  his  own  instructions,  as 
we  shall  later  see,  to  keep  up  a  good  understanding. 
Yet  to  Larkin  no  appeal  was  made  for  any  information 
whatever  on  the  matter.  And  if  Larkin  seemed  too  far 
away,  and  if,  in  his  credulous  acceptance  of  false  stories. 
Captain  Fremont  feared  to  wait  long  enough  to  get  an 
answer  from  Monterey,  he  could  equally  well  have  got 
information  from  Yerba  Buena  that  would  have  made 
a  peaceable  leader  very  loath  to  act  hastily.  He  did,  in 
fact,  send  Lieutenant  Gillespie,  for  supplies,  to  San 
Francisco  Bay,  dispatching  him  only  a  week  before 
hostilities  began.  And  before  Gillespie  returned,  hos- 
tilities had  been  begun.  These  facts  forbid  us  to  think 
Captain  Fremont  desirous  of  a  warrant  for  his  acts  in 
any  knowledge  of  Castro's  hostility,  and  show  us  that 
he  was  certainly  in  no  sense  anxious  to  know  the  exact 
truth  about  the  state  of  the  country. 

Of  Gillespie's  real  relation  to  Larkin  at  that  moment 
we  need  now  only  say  that  it  was  an  important  one, 
such  as  should  have  insured  mutual  confidence  and  cer- 
tainly very  good  faith  and  plain  speech  from  Gillespie 
to  Larkin.  On  the  other  hand,  moreover,  if  Captain 
Fremont  was  anywhere  to  learn  the  real  state  of  the 
country,  or  the  real  dangers  in  which  he  stood,  it  surely 
was  from  Larkin  that  he  might  expect  authentic  infer* 
mation.  Now,  however,  a  dispatch  from  Larkin  to  the 
State  Department,  dated  June  1,  proves  that  Captain 
Fremont  first  wrote  to  Larkin  from  the  Sacramento 
Valley,  giving  not  the  least  sign  of  any  sense  of  his  own 


104  CALIFORNIA, 

danger,  nor  the  least  hint  of  the  supposed  danger  to  the 
settlers,  but,  on  the  contrary,  saying,  in  a  perfectly  un- 
warlike  fashion,  that  he  meant  to  go  East  at  once.  Af- 
ter thus  writing,  and  before  he  could  have  time  to  get 
an  answer  from  Larkin,  he  began  his  hostilities.  This 
is  not  the  conduct  of  one  who  has  heard  reports  of  the 
hostility  of  a  government  with  which  he  is  properly  at 
peace,  and  who  prudently  wants  to  find  out  the  truth 
and  then  act  accordingly.  It  is,  however,  the  conduct 
of  a  man  who  feels  authorized  to  act  quite  independ- 
ently, and  who  chooses  to  give  no  sign  of  his  purposes 
to  even  the  most  properly  interested  persons.  On  June 
1,  then,  to  specify,  Larkin's  letter  to  the  State  Depart- 
ment says  that  Larkin  has  just  received  an  express  from 
Gillespie  and  Captain  Fremont,  who  have  returned  to 
the  Sacramento  Valley  from  Oregon.  "  Captain  Fremont 
now  starts  for  the  States.  By  the  courier,"  he  goes 
on,  "  I  received  a  letter  for  Hon.  Thomas  H.  Benton, 
which  I  inclose  in  this."  ^  The  letter  thus  inclosed 
gave  Mr.  Benton,  as  we  shall  see,  the  same  informa- 
tion about  the  captain's  intentions  to  go  East.  If,  then, 
Captain  Fremont's  intention  to  go  East  was  sincere, 
his  change  of  intention  that  led  to  the  attack  before 
he  got  or  could  get  any  reply  from  Larkin  was  based 
on  a  very  hasty  and  ill-conducted  examination  into  the 
mythical  warlike  preparations  of  Castro.  If,  however, 
as  is  possible,  this  intention  to  go  East  was  not  sincere, 
but  was  put  into  the  letter  to  Mr.  Benton  and  into  the 
letter  to  Larkin  for  the  sake  of  deceiving  any  Califor- 
nian  into  whose  hands  the  letters  might  perchance  fall, 
still  the  same  considerations  remain  as  to  the  insignifi- 
cance of  that  supposed  hostility  of  Castro  as  motive  for 
1  This  seems  to  be  the  letter  of  May  24. 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND  THE  BEAR  FLAG.    105 

the  captain's  acts.  For  whether  the  attack  upon  the 
Californians  was  already  determined  upon  or  not,  the 
same  thing  is  shown  by  this  Larkin  letter  ;  namely,  that 
Captain  Fremont  took  no  trouble  to  learn  from  Larkin, 
as  he  might  in  any  case  safely  and  prudently  have  done, 
whether  an  assault  upon  himself  and  the  settlers  was 
imminent,  and  from  his  side  gave  to  Larkin  no  hint  of 
his  own  supposed  danger.  On  the  contrary,  he  acted 
precisely  like  a  man  with  a  secret  that  either  could  not 
be  trusted  on  paper  at  all,  or,  if  it  could  be  so  trusted, 
still  could  not  be  even  remotely  hinted  to  the  person 
who  had  the  best  right  to  know. 

But  our  next  piece  of  evidence  is  absolutely  conclu- 
sive. Lieutenant  Gillespie,  as  he  testified  before  the 
Claims  Committee  (p.  26  of  their  Report),  left  Captain 
Fremont's  camp  on  the  28th  of  May,  after  the  return 
to  the  Sacramento  Valley  from  the  north,  and  only 
about  one  week  before  the  seizure  of  Arce's  horses,  "  to 
proceed  to  San  Francisco  to  obtain  supplies  [of  food] 
for  the  men."  On  the  30th,  at  Captain  Sutter's,  he 
learned,  as  he  says,  of  Castro's  expected  attack  on  the 
settlers  and  on  Captain  Fremont.  The  attack,  however, 
was  not  so  imminent  but  that  he  could  go  down  in  a 
launch  to  San  Francisco  without  fear,  expecting  to  get 
and  bring  back  supplies  in  no  very  secret  way.  He 
"  did  not  reach  San  Francisco  until  the  7th."  Here  he 
got  supplies  from  Captain  Montgomery  of  the  Ports- 
mouth, and  returned  to  Sutter's  Fort  on  the  12th.  On 
his  return  he  heard  of  the  seizure  of  Arce's  horses.  Of 
course,  before  he  set  out  on  this  expedition,  Gillespie 
must  have  known,  or  at  least  must  have  suspected,  that 
the  supplies  which  he  sought  were  meant  not  only  for 
pressing  necessities,  but  also  for  an  intended  war.     This 


106  CALIFORNIA. 

war  now  is  to  be,  according  to  the  self-defense  theory, 
something  forced  upon  Captain  Fremont  by  threatened 
hostilities.  The  knowledge  of  such  impending  hostili- 
ties Gillespie  shall  have  brought  down  to  Yerba  Buena. 
But  here,  as  it  chanced,  he  talked  quite  freely  with  an 
American,  who  at  once  wrote  a  letter,  dated  June  10, 
from  Yerba  Buena ;  and  this  was  later  printed  in  a 
paper  in  the  Sandwich  Islands.^  The  letter  begins: 
"There  are  strange  things  in  this  world,  happening 
every  day,  but  none  to  me  more  so  than  that  I  should 
find  myself  in  California,  and  writing  a  letter  to  be 
taken  to  you  by  the  first  overland  express,  and  cer- 
tainly the  longest  ever  attempted  in  America.  A  friend 
has  kindly  volunteered  to  put  this  into  the  hands  of  the 
gallant  Captain  Fremont,  who  is  now  encamped  in  the 
Sacramento,  and  about  to  proceed  directly  to  the  United 
States."  This  "  friend  '*  is  evidently  Gillespie  himself  ; 
for  the  letter-writer  goes  on  to  tell  how  he  has  just 
heard,  from  the  lips  of  the  very  gentleman  who  brought 
an  express  to  Captain  Fremont  from  the  States,  of  the 
meeting  on  the  shores  of  Klamath  Lake ;  of  the  night 
of  danger  that  followed;  of  the  Indian  attack;  of  the 
hair-breadth  escape;  and  of  the  return  to  the  Sacra- 
/  mento  Valley.  And  now  the  Frdmont  party  are  pre- 
paring to  return  to  the  States  !  Plainly,  Gillespie  well 
kept  his  secret  about  the  coming  conflict  from  his  fellow- 
countryman.  This  is  quite  intelligible  if  the  plotting 
was  going  on  from  the  American  side,  but  unintelligible 
if  the  pressing  danger  to  the  American  settlers  was  now 

1  I  have  the  letter  before  me  in  the  copy  made  from  the  Friend 
into  the  Sandwich  Island  News,  of  Honolulu,  December  2,  1846,  a 
copy  which  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  find  by  a  mere  accident,  and,  in- 
dependently, in  a  Harvard  College  Library  file.  I  do  not  know  foi 
what  American  newspaper  the  letter  was  first  written. 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND  THE  BEAR  FLAG.    107 

a  matter  of  public  knowledge  or  yet  of  public  report.  In 
that  case  the  correspondent  surely  could  not  have  been 
persuaded  to  send  a  letter  overland  to  the  United  States 
by  the  hands  of  Captain  Fremont  on  this  mentioned 
information  that  the  latter  was  at  once  to  leave  the 
land,  and  peacefully.  As  to  the  state  of  the  country, 
meanwhile,  the  correspondent,  in  his  innocence  about 
coming  events,  gives  us,  through  this  wholly  accidental 
letter,  a  beautifully  unconscious  refutation  of  all  stories 
about  the  fears  of  the  Americans  that  were  weU  informed. 
For  this  letter-writer  is  no  friend  of  the  Californians ; 
on  the  contrary,  he  speaks  ill  of  them,  and  hopes  that 
"  a  day  of  reckoning  "  may  some  time  come  for  certain 
supposed  old-time  injuries.  But  yet  his  whole  account 
of  these  people  attributes  to  them  a  present  condition, 
not  of  dangerous  and  hostile  readiness,  but  of  lazy  im- 
potence and  inefficiency.  The  facts  that  he  relates  are 
many  of  them  quite  inconsistent  with  any  prevalent  fear 
of  imminent  war  against  any  Americans.  He  says,  for 
instance,  that  Castro  is  supposed  to  be  quarreling  with 
Pio  Pico,  "  but  his  [Castro's]  conduct  meets  with  such 
universal  contempt  from  all  classes  that  he  cannot  raise 
over  forty  men  now,  where  a  few  months  ago  he  was 
supreme.'*  This  is  indeed  a  formidable  army,  "of  all 
arms,"  such  as  Senator  Benton  teUs  us  of !  The  letter- 
writer  does  indeed  know  that  it  is  "  even  reported  "  that 
Castro  is  inciting  Indians  to  burn  up  American  wheat- 
j&elds ;  but  so  little  does  he  lay  stress  on  this  mere  ru- 
mor that,  immediately  after  repeating  it,  he  adds  that 
all  Sutter's  American  laborers  have  left  the  fort  before 
the  harvest  time,  "  and  gone  to  work  for  themselves, 
taking  his  cattle  to  pay  the  amounts  due  them."  Thus 
people  always  behave,  let  the  reader  remember,  in  a 
time  of  dread  of  imminent  "  pillage  and  massacre  "  ! 


108  CALIFORNIA. 

And  so  this  intelligent  observer,  some  5ays  after  the 
seizure  of  Arce's  horses,  but  still  before  the  news  had 
come  of  this  first  cloud  of  war,  had  not  the  least  notion 
of  impending  hostilities,  and,  after  a  very  free  talk  with 
GUlespie,  only  knew  that  Captain  Fremont  was  about  to 
go  East,  and  that  there  was  some  rumor  about  Castro's 
wish  that  the  Indians  would  burn  up  American  wheat. 
This  writer  did  not  know  that  Castro  had  threatened 
any  armed  attack  on  Americans ;  he  did  not  lay  the 
least  stress  on  the  rumor  about  the  wheat ;  and  what  he 
says  shows  that  there  was  no  general  "  excitement  "  of  a 
hostile  character,  such  as  certain  of  the  Claims  Commit- 
tee witnesses  pretend  to  know  about,  at  Yerba  Buena  or 
anywhere  else  near  the  bay.  How,  if  there  were,  could 
Gillespie  be  spinning  yarns  on  shore  so  quietly  to  his 
countryman,  although  the  bold  lieutenant  was,  in  fact, 
already  well  known  at  Yerba  Buena  to  be  a  messenger 
to  Fremont  and  a  disguised  American  officer  ?  For  the 
rest,  the  same  correspondent,  in  a  later  letter,  after  hos- 
tihties  had  begun,  attributes  the  whole  trouble  to  the  set- 
tlers themselves,  and  considers  it  their  aggression.  All 
this,  then,  shows  both  the  absurdity  of  the  current  stories 
in  the  north,  the  carelessness  of  Captain  Fremont  about 
the  actual  state  of  the  Californian  public  mind,  and  the 
determination  of  the  captain  to  do  his  own  share  of 
plotting. 

Captain  Fremont's  own  letter  of  July  25,  1846,^  to 
Senator  Benton,  the  letter  on  which  the  venerable  sen- 
ator's first  account  was  founded,  does  indeed  assert  the 
hostility  of  Castro  as  a  ground  for  action,  but  it  gives 
no  reason  to  doubt  the  validity  of  the  foregoing  reason- 
ing. In  the  first  place,  it  may  have  been  written,  as  wo 
1  See  National  Intelligencer  for  November  12,  J846. 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND  THE  BEAR  FLAG.    109 

shall  see,  in  a  sort  of  private  family  cipher.  If  taken, 
however,  literally,  it  implies  that  Gillespie,  who  set  out 
on  May  28,  from  the  camp  in  the  north,  to  go  to  Yerba 
Buena  for  suppHes,  already  knew  of  Castro's  hostility 
and  of  the  captain's  purpose,  and  that  officers  in  the 
United  States  navy,  to  whom  Gillespie  told  the  news,  ap- 
proved openly  of  the  captain's  intended  course.  It  also 
implies  that  the  account  of  their  approval  brought  back 
by  Gillespie  was  one  motive  of  Captain  Fremont's  final 
action  itself,  although,  to  be  sure,  this  action,  as  it  also 
shows,  took  place  before  Gillespie's  return.  It  implies 
this  inconsistency  and  several  other  doubtful  matters, 
which  may  be  due  to  the  haste  in  which  the  letter  was 
written.  Imperfect  as  it  thus  is  for  historical  uses,  this 
letter  nevertheless  shows  plainly  enough,  if  it  shows 
anything,  that  between  May  24  and  June  6,  and  without 
waiting  for  sound  advices  from  even  Yerba  Buena,  Cap- 
tain Fremont  resolved  of  his  own  will  to  instigate  an  at- 
tack on  the  utterly  defenseless  Californians  north  of 
San  Francisco  Bay,  giving  as  his  warrant  an  entirely 
unfounded  report  (or  pretext)  that  they  were  already 
in  arms  against  himself.  Taken  in  connection  with  the 
foregoing  contemporaneous  evidence,  this  fact  must  be 
viewed  as  forever  disposing  of  the  notion  that  Captain 
Fremont  could  have  learned,  after  careful  inquiry  from 
any  competent  persons,  that  good  evidence  existed  of 
immediate  danger  from  Castro.  For  the  letter  itself 
shows  that  he  took  no  time  to  make  such  inquiry.  On 
the  contrary,  we  now  see  clearly  that  the  reports  about 
Castro,  such  as  the  forged  proclamation  that  Loker 
posted  or  the  paper  that  Ide  saw,  issued  from  some 
source  very  near  to  Captain  Fremont's  own  person,  and 
that  if  he  himself  was  deceived  about  the  matter,  he 


110  CALIFORNIA. 

took  no  trouble  to  avoid  such  deception,  and  acted 
wholly  without  good  evidence  of  danger.  In  view  of 
the  above-mentioned  evidences  that  somebody  was  de- 
cidedly interested  in  spreading  false  written  reports  of 
Castro's  intentions,  there  can  be  very  little  doubt  re- 
maining as  to  the  actual  relation  of  Captain  Fremont 
and  Lieutenant  GiUespie  themselves  to  the  reports  that 
are  so  often  said  to  have  justified  their  aggression. 
Rather  must  it  be  hoped  that  the  orders  from  Washing- 
ton justified  the  use  of  these  reports. 

Let  the  reader  still  not  for  one  moment  misinterpret 
our  present  result.  If  the  fourth  plan  was  the  govern- 
ment plan,  and  was  so  included  in  instructions  brought 
by  Gillespie  that  Captain  Fremont,  as  a  confidential 
officer  of  the  government,  could  not  escape  from  the 
duty  of  performing  his  official  trust  by  carrying  out  this 
plan,  then  let  the  necessary  means  used  be  charged  one 
and  all  to  the  moral  responsibility  of  the  government  at 
Washington.  The  morality  of  such  devices  is,  in  such 
cases,  obviously  an  affair  for  the  government,  not  for 
the  confidential  agent,  to  judge.  7/*  the  Gillespie  in- 
structions were  so  worded  as  to  require  this  interpreta- 
tion under  the  circumstances,  then  all  the  deception  and 
all  the  aggression  used  by  Captain  Fremont  must  be 
pardoned  or  even  praised,  in  so  far  as  it  all  was  an 
official  act  authorized  and  demanded  by  his  govern- 
ment. And  furthermore  one  must  pardon,  in  that  case, 
the  aforesaid  patriotic  delicacy  also  that  led  the  young 
officer's  friends  in  later  times  to  shield  the  government, 
by  repeating  to  the  American  public  statements  that 
were  originally  of  use  in  arousing  the  trappers  and 
sturdy  vagabonds  of  the  Sacramento  Valley.  Even  if 
Buch  evidences  were  used  before  Congress  to  secure  ap» 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND  THE  BEAR  FLAG.    Ill 

propriations  for  the  expenses  of  the  conquest,  one  may 
still  suppose  the  administration  responsibly  for  the  some- 
what singular  means  employed  for  this  end.  In  case  the 
fourth  plan  was  the  government  plan,  it  is  indeed  im- 
possible to  hide  from  ourselves  its  wantonly  aggressive 
and  cruel  character  ;  but  it  is  still  easy  to  justify  and  to 
extol  the  energy  of  the  spirited  agent.  So  that  now  all 
still  turns  for  us  upon  this  question  :  Was  the  fourth 
plan  really  the  government  plan,  and  did  Captain  Fre- 
mont's instructions,  received  from  Gillespie,  warrant 
and  require  him  to  carry  it  out  ? 

VI.     THE   MYSTERY   AS    NOW    EXPOUNDED    BY   GENERAL 
FREMONT. 

Students  of  a  scene  in  history  must  not  be  moved 
by  personal  interests  ;  but  I  confess  that  from  a  priori 
considerations  1  was  prepared,  when  I  first  came  to  the 
study  of  this  subject,  to  form  a  very  high  opinion  of  the 
work  of  the  gallant  Captain  Fremont  in  the  acquisition 
of  California ;  and  later,  when  facts  upon  which  we  are 
soon  to  dwell  had  already  very  seriou.ily  affected  my  en- 
thusiasm, I  still  turned,  with  strong  hopes  of  discovering 
new  facts  that  would  vindicate  him,  to  GeTieral  Fremont 
himself  for  personal  explanations.  I  have  not  promised 
General  Fremont  to  agree  with  him  in  any  of  my  results, 
nor  have  I  assured  him  of  anything  but  the  fairest  pos- 
sible statement  of  his  side  also  in  its  place  in  this  book, 
along  with  whatever  other  facts,  opposing  or  favorable, 
I  might  learn  in  connection  with  the  matter.  So  far,  the 
facts  here  brought  forward  certainly  have  seemed  to 
make  Captain  Fremont's  responsibility  at  the  moment  of 
his  action  a  very  serious  one,  in  case  he  was  not  fully 
supported  by  his  instructions.     He  brought  war  into  a 


112  CALIFORNIA. 

peaceful  Department;  his  operations  began  an  estrange- 
ment, insured  ^,  memory  of  bloodshed,  excited  a  furious 
bitterness  of  feeling  between  the  two  peoples  that  were 
henceforth  to  dwell  in  California,  such  as  all  his  own 
i  subsequent  personal  generosity  and  kindness  could  never 
I  again  make  good.  From  the  Bear  Flag  affair  we  can 
j  date  the  beginning  of  the  degradation,  the  ruin,  and  the 
\  oppression  of  the  Californian  people  by  our  own.  In 
\all  subsequent  time  the  two  peoples,  as  peoples,  have 
misunderstood  and  hated  each  other,  with  disastrous 
effects  for  both,  and  especially  for  the  weaker.  No 
doubt,  as  we  shall  later  see,  some  great  evils  were,  under 
the  circumstances,  inevitable.  Yet  much  of  this  hatred 
might  have  been  saved,  had  we  come  peaceably  and  open- 
heartedly.  We  came,  as  it  seemed  to  them,  by  stealth, 
and  we  used  unprovoked  violence.  The  memory  of  this 
led  in  part  to  the  revClt  in  the  south,  and  to  the  blood- 
shed of  that  conflict ;  and  so  all  the  rest  followed.  Un- 
doubted is  the  personal  good-will  and  generous  appre- 
ciation that  General  Fremont  has  since  shown  to  many 
native  Californian js,  and  the  devotion  that  he  later  ex- 
hibited to  some  of  their  interests.  With  all  that  we 
have  here  nothing  to  do.  His  act  as  aggressor  in  the 
Bear  Flag  war  began  the  bitterness.  And  in  that,  we 
say,  he  assumed  a  very  serious  responsibility.  Now, 
however,  we  are  to  see  how,  from  his  own  point  of  view, 
he  to-day  regards  this  long-past  story,  and  what  he  now 
feels  at  liberty  to  say  for  his  personal  justification. 

An  interview  which  I  had  with  General  Fremont  in 
December,  1884,  forms  the  basis  of  the  present  state- 
ment of  his  side  of  the  matter.  I  took  copious  notes 
at  the  time,  submitted  them  later  to  General  and  Mrs. 
Frdmont  for  correction,  and  have  promised  them  an 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND  THE  BEAR  FLAG.    113 

opportunity  to  see  the  proofs  of  this  present  version. 
The  reader  may  then  feel  tolerably  sure  that,  however  I 
shall  later  have  to  criticise  General  Fremont's  past  acts 
or  present  views,  the  general's  final  and  definitive  ac- 
count of  those  matters  at  issue,  concerning  which  I  ex- 
pressed my  doubts  and  questions  to  him  personally,  is, 
at  this  point,  stated  to  his  own  satisfaction  in  so  far  as 
it  has  been  possible  for  me  so  to  state  his  views. 

In  answer  to  my  general  questions,  at  our  interview, 
about  his  purposes  in  the  expedition  of  1845-46,  Gen-  / 
eral  Fremont  replied  that  his  main  object  was  to  find  ' 
the  shortest  route  for  a  future  railroad  to  the  Pacific,  /  i 
and  especially  to  the  neighborhood  of  San  Francisco  j 
Bay.  Yet  he  was  not  without  other  thoughts  at  the 
time  of  his  departure  from  the  East.  For  Senator 
Benton,  who  had  long  devoted  much  attention  to  proj- 
ects of  further  extension  of  our  territory  in  the  West 
and  Southwest,  and  who,  of  course,  had  been  deeply 
interested  in  the  previous  expedition  to  California,  had 
often  talked  with  the  young  captain,  before  the  be- 
ginning of  this  new  expedition,  concerning  the  value 
that  the  territory  would  have  to  the  United  States  when- 
ever it  should  come,  as  Senator  Benton  was  firmly  de- 
termined to  have  it  come,  into  our  possession.  War 
with  Mexico  was  already  probable.  And  so,  said  Gen- 
eral Fremont,  "at  the  time  I  set  out,  I  felt  that  op- 
portunity was  apt  to  make  probability  a  certainty,  and 
I  was  determined  to  be  prompt  to  act  upon  this  feeling, 
and  to  take  advantage  of  any  opportunity  to  serve  the 
country  in  this  way." 

Mrs.  Fremont,  at  this  point  during  the  interview, 
kindly  added  some  explanations  concerning  what  she 
knew  of  the  intentions  of  the  government  during  Cap* 


114  CALIFORNIA. 

tain  Fremont's  absence  on  this  expedition.  After  the 
expedition  was  on  its  way,  she  frequently  made  part  in 
consultations  between  her  father  and  Secretary  Buch- 
anan concerning  California.  Buchanan,  as  she  feels 
sure,  was  very  much,  if  not  altogether,  under  her  fa- 
ther's influence,  and  agreed  with  Senator  Benton  as 
to  all  important  points  in  the  whole  affair.  What  the 
character  of  their  discussions  was  the  subsequent  in- 
structions to  Captain  Fremont  showed,  and  also  the  sub- 
sequent events.  Yet,  if  I  desired  a  summary  of  the 
conversations  concerning  California,  as  she  remem- 
bered them,  she  would  express  their  substance  in  the 
single  sentence :  "  Since  England  intends  to  take  Cal- 
ifornia, we  must  see  that  she  does  not."  Meanwhile,  of 
course,  the  certainty  of  a  coming  war  with  Mexico  was 
laid  at  the  basis  of  all  the  discussions. 

General  Fremont,  resuming  his  own  statement,  added 
that  he  himself  knew,  of  course,  very  accurately,  during 
his  absence,  the  great  extent  of  the  influence  which  Mr. 
Benton's  long  experience  and  position  as  chairman  of 
the  military  committee  of  the  Senate,  as  well  as  his  per- 
sonal powers  and  his  political  eminence,  gave  him  with 
the  administration.  General  Fremont  remembers,  also, 
how  the  coming  of  the  Mexican  War,  in  view  of  Mr. 
Benton's  views  and  influence,  was  already  considered  by 
all  the  family  as  a  certainty.  And  naturally  all  these 
facts  influenced  his  own  subsequent  conduct. 

After  he  reached  California,  the  unfortunate  difficulty 
with  Castro  took  place.  This,  General  Fremont  assured 
me,  was  in  no  wise  occasioned  by  his  own  fault,  nor  was 
it  any  part  of  his  intention.  For  as  yet  no  further  in- 
formation had  reached  him  that  could  warrant  him  in 
getting  into  any  voluntary  difficulty  with  Castro.     He 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND  THE  BEAR  FLAG.    115 

remembers  no  incident  that  could  have  caused  trouble 
from  his  side,  or  by  the  act  of  any  of  his  party.  Castro, 
as  he  now  remembers  the  matter,  had  promised  him  the 
privilege  of  accomplishing  one  of  the  immediate  objects 
of  his  surveying  expedition,  by  "  being  allowed  to  travel 
through  the  country,  and  to  become  acquainted  with  the 
passes  to  the  coast."  The  privilege  of  "resting  the 
party  and  getting  supplies  "  was  merely  an  addition  to 
this  main  request.  The  main  request  was  clearly  un- 
derstood on  both  sides.  The  permission  of  Castro  was 
indeed  not  put  in  writing,  but  the  matter  was  clear 
enough.  And  the  subsequent  order  of  Castro  was  also 
clearly  a  breaking  of  the  latter's  promise,  a  complete 
change  of  policy,  unprovoked  and  unexpected.  That 
Captain  Fremont  should  resist  this  order  as  much  as  he 
did  was,  the  general  assured  me,  merely  an  expression  of 
his  indisposition  to  submit  to  an  affront.  He  was  will- 
ing to  give  Castro  an  opportunity  to  attack,  although  he 
himself  had  still  no  authority  to  attack  Castro.  The  re- 
tirement after  three  days  was  leisurely,  and  surveys  were 
made  all  along  the  way  until  Klamath  Lake  was  reached, 
the  Indians  showing  no  hostility  until  the  fatal  night  of 
Gillespie's  coming,  when  they  attacked  the  camp  and 
killed  three  men. 

Gillespie's  coming  and  his  messages  formed,  of 
course,  the  main  subject  of  my  conversation  with  Gen- 
eral Fremont ;  and  the  discussion  upon  this  matter  was 
quite  full.  Gillespie,  according  to  the  general's  state- 
ment, brought  a  dispatch  to  him  from  Buchanan  in  ver- 
bal form,  having  destroyed  the  original  before  he  passed 
through  Mexico,  to  prevent  its  possible  capture.  He  also 
brought,  as  has  always  been  said,  letters  from  Senator 
Benton  and  Mrs.  Fremont  to  Captain  Fremont.    These, 


116  CALIFORNIA. 

indeed,  were  private  letters,  but  they  related  in  part 
to  the  same  subject  as  Gillespie's  dispatch.  Senator 
Benton  gave,  in  fact,  to  Captain  Fremont,  by  his  own 
letter,  a  more  explicit  expression  of  the  wishes  of  the 
government  than  was  given  in  the  dispatch.  But  this 
could  safely  be  done  in  the  letter,  because  "  the  private 
letters  were  in  a  manner  in  family  cipher,  so  full  were 
they  of  prearranged  reference  to  talks  and  agreements 
known  only  at  home."  ^  That  this  information  as  to 
the  wishes  of  the  government  was,  under  the  circum- 
stances, as  authoritative  as  the  official  dispatch  itself,  is 
clear  to  General  Fremont  from  the  previously  stated 
facts  concerning  Senator  Benton's  relations  to  the  ad- 
ministration. 

Between  the  private  letters  and  the  dispatch.  General 
Fremont  made  in  his  statement  only  this  distinction: 
that  the  letters  were  "  much  stronger  and  fuller  than  the 
dispatch,  —  stronger  and  fuller  to  the  one  point  of  takr 
ing  and  holding  possession  of  California  in  the  event  of 
any  occurrence  that  would  justify  it,  leaving  it  to  my 
discretion  to  decide  upon  such  an  occurrence."  The 
substance,  however,  of  letters  and  dispatch  together 
was,  that  it  was  the  desire  of  the  president  that  Cap- 
tain  Fremont  should  not  let  the  English  get  possession 
of  California,  hut  shoidd  use  any  means  in  his  power, 
or  any  occasion  that  offered,  to  prevent  such  a  thing, 
looking  always  to  the  imminent  probability  of  a  war 
with  Mexico.  And  so  what  was  afterwards  done  was 
in  strict  conformity  to  these  instructions,  in  view  of  the 
circumstances  of  the  ca^e. 

General  Fremont  expressed  his  certainty  that  the  dis. 

1  The  words  quoted  here  are  Mrs.  Fremont's,  added  by  her,  for  the 
Bake  of  fuller  explanation,  to  my  MS.  notes  of  the  interview. 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND   THE  BEAR  FLAG.    117 

patch  brought  by  Gillespie  was  addressed  to  him  di- 
rectly. And  here  a  discussion  took  place  at  our  inter- 
view which  the  reader  will  later  find  noteworthy.  I 
brought  up  Mr.  J.  S.  Hittell's  assertion  as  made  in  his 
"  History  of  San  Francisco,"  to  the  effect  that  the  Bear 
Flag  affair  was  a  blunder  whereby  a  certain  important 
and  authorized  plan  of  Consul  Larkin's  to  gain  posses- 
sion of  California  by  peaceful  means  was  violently 
thwarted.  In  view  of  this  and  of  what  I  called  an  ap- 
parently well-founded  opinion  about  Gillespie's  dispatch, 
I  asked  whether  it  was  not  true  that  the  message  from 
the  government  as  brought  by  Gillespie  was  really  di- 
rected to  Consul  Larkin,  or  was  at  least  ordered  to  be 
repeated  to  him.  Concerning  this  point  General  Fre- 
mont's recollection  was  very  decided  and  his  opinion  quite 
clear.  He  was  sure  that  the  Gillespie  dispatch  as  he  knew 
it  was  directed  to  him  personally  ;  and  he  was  firmly  of 
the  opinion  that  Gillespie  could  not  have  had  any  impor- 
tant secret  instruction  directed  to  Larkin  or  to  anybody 
else  in  California  save  Captain  Fremont  himself.  Nor  did 
it  seem  at  all  probable  to  him  that  the  government  would 
have  intrusted  to  Larkin  any  part  of  the  business.  Mr. 
Hittell's  interpretation  he  considered  as  utterly  un- 
founded in  fact.  Mrs.  Fremont,  who  later,  in  1849,  had 
frequent  opportunities  for  conversation  with  Larkin  con- 
cerning past  events,  and  who  felt  sure  that  under  the  cir- 
cumstances he  would  have  had  no  objection  to  telling 
her  all  about  the  matter,  never  heard  —  so  she  at  this 
point  kindly  assured  me  —  any  hint  from  him  of  any  such 
secret  mission.  She  thought  that  "  there  could  hardly 
be  a  more  improbable  idea  "  than  the  one  suggested  by 
Mr.  Hittell,  namely,  the  idea  that  Larkin  could  have 
been  instructed  to  get  California  by  peaceful   intrigue 


118  CALIFORNIA.         * 

with  its  inhabitants.  The  plan  could  not  have  been 
carried  out ;  Mr.  Buchanan  would  never  have  dreamed 
of  intrusting  such  a  plan  to  a  man  of  the  imperfect  edu- 
cation and  small  experience  of  Consul  Larkin  ;  the  idea 
of  such  a  plan  was  inconsistent  with  the  wishes  of  the 
government  as  made  known  to  Captain  Fremont  and 
discussed  in  her  presence  in  Washington. 

General  Fremont  also  held  this  same  view  of  the 
matter.  He  said,  indeed,  that  Larkin  might  have  been 
given  some  special  instructions  about  conciliating  the 
Californians,  but  insisted  that  no  part  of  the  real  pur» 
pose  of  the  government  in  California  could  have  been 
intrusted  to  him  or  to  any  other  agent  in  California 
save  Gillespie  as  messenger  and  Captain  Fremont  him- 
self as  principal  agent.  California  could  not  have  been 
gained  by  peaceable  means  in  the  way  supposed ;  and 
the  actual  purpose  of  the  government  as  known  at  the 
time  to  Captain  Fremont  included  the  use  of  such 
means  as  were  actually  employed  in  view  of  the  circum- 
stances. The  whole  affair  had  indeed  to  be  carried  on, 
in  part,  out  of  the  range  of  official  business  ;  and  much 
was  left  to  Captain  Fremont's  responsibility,  so  that  he 
was  obliged  to  act  on  his  personal  knowledge  of  what 
the  government  wanted,  —  a  knowledge  not  wholly  com- 
municated by  official  channels.  However,  so  much  is  cer- 
tain to  him  :  that  Larkin  could  not  have  had  any  im- 
portant trust  in  the  matter  without  the  knowledge  of  the 
captain,  while  in  fact  the  latter  had  no  such  knowledge.^ 

I  dwelt  perhaps  unnecessarily,  in  the  interview,  on 
the  question  of  the  exact  coloring  of  the  official  instruc- 
tions and  the  exact  sense  of  his  position  which  General 

1  The  same  view  was  insisted  upon,  later,  in  letters  to  me  written 
for  the  general. 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND  THE  BEAR  FLAG.    119 

Fremont  remembers  himself  to  have  had  at  the  mo- 
ment of  action.  No  doubt,  I  was  repeatedly  assured, 
could  exist  as  to  the  purpose  of  the  government  to  take 
California  if  there  should  he  the  least  chance,  "  and  by 
force  if  necessary. ''  The  government  wanted  and  in- 
tended to  push  the  war  with  Mexico,  and  instructed  ac- 
cordingly. As  to  his  own  feeling  at  the  moment  of  ac- 
tion, General  Fremont  said,  in  nearly  the  following 
words :  "  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  an  officer  of 
the  government  would  act  as  I  did  unless  he  had  the 
sense  that  his  authority  for  his  act  was  sufficient  under 
the  circumstances.  I  felt  that  the  certainty  of  war 
would  place  me  in  a  position  to  have  the  government 
behind  me  in  all  that  I  might  do  ;  but  that  if  no  war 
took  place  I  would  so  assume  the  responsibility  as  to 
leave  the  government  free  to  disavow  me  if  it  was 
needed.  I  was  in  a  position  where  I  might  render 
great  service  to  the  government  by  taking  upon  myself 
a  possible  personal  risk  which  the  government  knew  I 
was  taking."  ^  There  is  at  all  events  no  chance,  in- 
sisted General  Fremont,  that  any  one  acquainted  with 
his  official  instructions  could  fairly  and  truthfully  accuse 
him  of  disobeying  their  letter,  notwithstanding  the  rela- 
tive freedom  with  which  under  the  circumstances,  it  was 
his  duty  to  act.  When  I  referred  to  the  summary  of 
the  situation  casually  given  by  Mr.  Barrows  in  his 
"  Oregon,"  ^  according  to  which  the  young  captain  did 
good  service  by  properly  disregarding  "  red  tape,"  Gen- 

i  The  analogy  of  General  Komaroff's  recent  position  and  action  in 
Afghanistan,  as  the  European  public  have  interpreted  the  matter, 
will  at  once  occur  to  any  reader's  mind.  As  this  interview  took  place 
in  December,  1884,  tha  particular  analogy  of  course,  could  not  have 
been  thought  of  in  our  conversation  on  this  occasion. 

2  See  that  work  in  the  present  series,  p.  273. 


120  CALIFORNIA. 

eral  Fremont  accepted  the  description  as  very  fair  and 
satisfactory. 

General  Fremont  now  continued  as  to  subsequent 
events.  When  Gillespie  overtook  the  party  at  the 
head  of  the  Sacramento  Valley,  Captain  Fremont  al- 
ready fully  intended  to  return  from  Oregon  after  he 
should  have  spent  some  time  in  making  surveys.  When 
he  should  return  he  expected  to  remain  in  the  territory 
and  to  "watch  events."  Already  he  hoped  in  this  way 
to  have  part  in  the  acquisition  of  California.  The  diffi- 
culty with  Castro  had  diverted  him  for  the  moment 
from  his  original  plans,  but  had  not  affected  his  ultimate 
purposes.  From  the  time  of  the  return  to  the  Sacra- 
mento Valley  until  the  first  act  of  hostility,  Captain 
Fremont  waited  in  the  valley  watching  events ;  the 
coming  of  Arce's  horses  seemed  to  him  to  bring  the 
right  moment  for  action,  and  so  he  chose  it.  General 
Fremont  finds  it  now,  of  course,  hard  to  say  just  in  how 
far  there  was  a  clear  understanding  between  him  and 
the  settlers  before  this  first  hostile  act.  Such  men  as 
he  needed  he  instructed  in  what  it  was  needful  for  them 
to  know.  He  took  no  care  to  prevent  the  misunderstand- 
ings that  must  arise  when  such  a  movement  has  to  be 
made  by  an  officer  with  confidential  instructions.  Mer- 
ritt,  who  was  a  "  good  man,"  ^  had  the  instructions  about 
taking  Arce's  horses  and  about  the  subsequent  seizure 
of  Sonoma  and  of  the  four  notable  prisoners.  All  that 
was  therefore  done  by  Captain  Fremont's  order.  As 
for  the  Bear  Flag  men  at  Sonoma,  before  the  party  of 
Captain  Fremont  joined  them,  the  general  said  that  he 

1  I  fully  suppose  and  believe  that  General  Fr(^mont  must  be  here 
understood  to  use  "good  "  as  a  relative  term,  —  relative,  namely,  to 
the  business  of  taking  horses  by  violenca. 


SECRET  MISSION  AND   THE  BEAR  FLAG.    121 

neither  knew  nor  cared  what  they  did  in  the  way  of  \  / 
"  government "  at  Sonoma,  save  indeed  that  their  arbi- 
trary seizures  of  property  and  similar  acts  seemed  to 
him  to  be  bad,  and  were  blamed  by  him  when  he  came 
down  to  Sonoma.  General  Fremont,  in  answer  to  one 
further  question,  said  that  he  saw  no  proclamation  of 
Castro's  ordering  American  settlers  out  of  the  country, 
or  threatening  them ;  nor  does  he  know  whether  there 
was  one.  I  ought  here  to  add  that  although  at  this 
first  interview  General  Fremont  gave  me  to  understand 
that  he  had  taken  ample  time  to  go  over  his  recollections 
and  records  of  that  period ;  although  he  himself,  in  fact, 
chose  the  time  of  the  interview  and  was  previously  ad- 
vised by  letter  of  what  I  aimed  to  know ;  although,  more- 
over, he  himself  on  this  occasion  referred  me  more  than 
once  to  the  Claims  Committee  Report,  heretofore  fre- 
quently quoted ;  and  although  I  definitely  set  before 
him  at  the  time  as  a  difficulty  Mr.  Bidwell's  assertion 
that  the  settlers  had  nothing  to  fear,  still  he  made  in 
the  whole  interview  no  mention  of  the  traditional  dan- 
ger to  the  settlers  or  of  aggression  from  Castro  as  in  any 
wise  an  important  reason  for  his  operations,  but  on  the 
contrary  distinctly  gave  me  to  understand  that  his  duty  / 
as  a  confidential  servant  of  the  country  itself  fully  war-  ' 
ranted  his  action.  Mr.  Bidwell,  he  assured  me,  was  as  a 
settler  of  course  unaware  of  the  purposes  of  the  govern- 
ment, and  was  therefore  an  incompetent  critic  of  a  con- 
fidential agent's  conduct.  The  whole  interview  tended 
to  this  one  result,  that  the  instructions  were  the  decisive 
element  in  determining  the  conduct  of  the  captain,  while 
the  stories  about  Castro  soon  seemed  to  me  so  completely 
out  of  sight  for  General  Fremont  that  I  made,  after  the 
introduction  of  Mr.  Bidwell's  view  and  the  asking  of 


122  CALIFORNIA, 

the  question  about  Castro's  proclamation,  no  further  at- 
tempt to  press  the  matter,  confident  that  General  Fre- 
mont now  felt  at  liberty,  in  view  of  the  long-past  public 
interests  involved,  to  leave  out  of  account  those  motives 
that  his  duty  to  his  country  seems  to  have  once  forced 
him  to  make  so  prominent.  I  considered  the  interview 
as  in  fact  decisive  upon  this  matter,  and  for  some  time 
had  no  reason  to  change  my  view  of  General  Fremont's 
present  opinion.  Of  course  I  may  herein  have  entirely 
misunderstood  the  general. 

In  justice  to  General  Fremont,  though  with  serious 
regrets  for  the  cause  of  historical  simplicity  and  definite- 
ness  of  result,  I  am  forced,  however,  to  add  that,  in  a 
subsequent  interview,  in  which  he  kindly  undertook  to 
help  me  about  a  few  further  difficulties,  General  Fre- 
mont returned  once  more,  in  answer  to  questions  then 
put,  to  the  expression  of  liis  opinion  that  he  was  at  that 
time  trustworthily  informed  of  Castro's  imminent  hos- 
tility. Possibly  to  the  natural  inconsistencies  of  the 
human  memory,  which  General  Fremont  himself  freely 
declared  to  be,  after  forty  years,  a  troublesome  obstacle 
to  historical  thoroughness  and  accuracy,  may  be  attrib- 
uted the  whole  of  this  last  difficulty  of  mine.  At  all 
events,  as  we  have  seen,  there  is  good  reason  for  doubt- 
ing any  memory  that  may  now  assure  General  Fremont 
of  well-sifted  and  trustworthy  information  then  possessed 
by  him  about  any  imminent  danger  to  his  command  or 
to  the  settlers  from  Castro.  He  could  have  had  no  such 
trustworthy  information,  since  there  was  none  to  have. 
If  he  was  actually  deceived  by  a  conspiracy  of  settlers, 
or  by  some  odd  accident  of  circumstances,  very  definite 
documentary  evidence  would  now  be  needed  to  substan- 
tiate the  fact.     And  the  whole  tendency  of  my  principal 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND  THE  BEAR  FLAG.    123 

interview  is  to  show  that  the  chief  and  clearer  memory 
of  General  Fremont  has  reference  to  his  instructions, 
and  not  to  Castro.  Whether  even  this  clearer  memory 
is  accurate,  we  have  now  to  see.  I  think  that  the  dan- 
ger from  Castro  ought  at  all  events  forever  to  disappear 
from  the  determining  motives  of  the  affair.  The  opera- 
tion was  once  for  all  a  pure  aggression,  and  there  will 
never  again  be  a  chance  of  making  it  appear  otherwise. 
Such  then  is  General  Fremont's  present  account. 

VII.       THE   MYSTERY   DEEPENS. 

A  government  is  responsible  only  for  instructions 
that  it  actually  gives.  However  near  or  dear  the  ven- 
erable Senator  Benton  was  to  the  government,  he  was 
not  in  the  government,  and  his  private  advices  to  Cap- 
tain Fremont  in  a  "  family  cipher  "  cannot  be  viewed 
as  committing  our  administration  to  any  policy  which 
it  did  not  actually  authorize  that  distinguished  statesman 
to  convey  to  his  son-in-law.  It  would  need  no  disavowal 
to  save  the  government  from  the  responsibility  of  such 
acts  ;  they  would  be  ipso  facto  a  family  plot,  unless  the 
cabinet,  or  at  all  events  the  president,  previously  knew 
of  them  and  approved  them.     All  this  is  axiomatic. 

In  view  hereof  I  fully  appreciate  the  importance  for 
General  Fremont  of  the  discovery  of  sufficient  proof 
that  Senator  Benton's  "  family  cipher  "  letter  contained 
nothing  in  opposition  to  the  wording  of  the  official  gov- 
ernment dispatch  brought  by  Gillespie.  The  fourth 
plan  was,  if  General  Fremont  is  right,  in  the  dispatch 
itself,  although  it  was  more  fully  stated  in  the  letter. 
The  letter  from  Senator  Benton  has  never  seen  the 
light ;  but  if  we  had  it  and  the  dispatch  both  before  us, 
with  the  "  cipher  "  interpreted,  there  are  but  four  pos- 


124  CALIFORNIA. 

sibilities  as  to  their  relations :  (1. )  K  they  disagreed, 
then  Senator  Benton's  letter  could  have  no  authority, 
but  would  express  only  a  family  plot  to  thwart  the  gov- 
ernment ;  and  this  would  be  true,  however  loving  and 
confidential  the  daily  intercourse  between  the  venerable 
statesman  and  the  cabinet  may  have  been.  (2.)  But 
the  two  might  perfectly  agree,  or  the  letter  might  be 
less  explicit  than  the  dispatch  ;  and  then  the  letter  from 
Senator  Benton  would  not  help  us  at  all  in  our  judgment. 
(3.)  Since  the  letter,  however,  is  said  to  have  been  more 
explicit  than  the  dispatch,  this  more  in  the  letter  might 
be  unauthorized  exhortation  ;  and  would  then  again  be 
worthless.  (4.)  Or  this  more  might  be  authorized,  and' 
then  the  best  way  to  prove  the  fact  would  be  to  show 
the  perfect  agreement  of  letter  and  dispatch  in  contents 
and  in  spirit,  so  far  as  the  dispatch  went.  ■  In  all  ways, 
therefore,  we  see  how  vastly  important  it  is  to  know  what 
the  dispatch  said ;  and  how  comparatively  unimportant 
it  is,  before  we  know  what  the  dispatch  said,  to  speculate 
about  the  private  opinions  of  even  Senator  Benton  con-r 
cerning  the  conquest  of  California.  The  best  way  to 
show  that  his  views  were  decisive  with  the  cabinet  is 
to  find  out  the  actual  expression  of  the  cabinet's  views  ; 
since  a  government  is  distinguishable  by  the  fact  that 
even  its  most  halting  and  vacillating  and  foolish  views 
are  for  its  agents  always  authoritative,  whilst  a  person 
not  in  the  government  is  distinguished  by  the  fact  that 
his  wisest  and  seemingly  most  influential  and  most  far- 
seeing  and  most  friendly  advice  is  worth  not  the  waste 
paper  needed  to  write  it,  to  a  faithful  agent  of  the  gov« 
ernment,  unless  this  agent  knows  from  the  government 
that  this  advice  receives  its  own  sanction. 

Can  we,  however,  find  out  what  the  dispatch  said  ? 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND  THE  BEAR  FLAG.    125 

Let  us  try  both  indirect  and  direct  means.  We  have 
General  Fremont's  memory  of  the  dispatch  and  of  the 
letter,  and  of  their  agreement.  But  now,  if  the  dispatch 
contained  what  was  essentially  the  fourth  plan,  how 
could  a  sane  government  have  sent  it,  while,  both  about 
the  same  time  and  later,  sending  instructions  to  Sloat 
that  not  only  did  not  contemplate  any  support  from  his 
fleet  to  Captain  Fremont's  operations,^  but  gave  him 
definite  orders  that  in  so  many  words  said  things  utterly 
inconsistent  with  the  notion  of  what  we  have  called  the 
fourth  plan  ?  This  latter  inconsistency  appears  as  fol- 
lows :  ^  — 

As  far  as  they  have  been  published  the  earlier  in- 
structions issued  required  Sloat,  not,  unless  absolutely 
driven  thereto,  to  attack  the  government  of  California 
as  such,  but  only  in  case  he  should  hear  o*f  a  declara- 
tion of  war  to  seize  upon  the  ports,  especially  the  port 
of  San  Francisco,  but  if  possible  without  a  struggle 
with  the  government.  Sloat  was  meanwhile  both  first 
and  last  carefully  instructed  "  to  preserve,  if  possible, 
the  most  friendly  relations  with  the  inhabitants,"  and  to 
"  encourage  them  to  adopt  a  course  of  neutrality."  In 
an  instruction  that  did  not  reach  him  before  he  acted, 
but  that  expresses  intentions  which  he  must  well  have 
known  by  other  means  when  he  acted,  he  is  assured 

1  This  point,  heretofore  dwelt  upon,  Colonel  Fremont  was  himself  at 
no  small  pains  to  prove  before  the  Claims  Committee,  where  he  and 
Gillespie  testified  to  Sloat's  perplexity  and  confusion  of  mind  concern- 
ing the  unexpected  and  incomprehensible  conduct  of  the  young  cap- 
tain in  the  north.  Colonel  Fremont  at  that  time  desired  to  show  th& 
energy  and  momentous  consequences  of  his  acts. 

2  A  convenient  place  to  find  Sloat's  instructions  together  is  in  Ex. 
Doc.  19,  2d  Sess.  29th  Congr.  (Assembly),  or  again  in  Cutts,  History 
of  the  Conquest  of  New  Mexico  and  California  (Philadelphia,  1847), 
m.  chap,  vii.,  and  iu  the  appendix. 


126  CALIFORNIA. 

that  "  a  connection  between  California  and  the  present 
government  of  Mexico  is  supposed  scarcely  to  exist." 
He  is  instructed,  "  as  opportunity  offers,"  to  "  conciliate 
the  people  in  California  towards  the  government  of  the 
United  States,"  and  to  "  endeavor  to  render  their  rela- 
tions with  the  United  States  as  intimate  and  friendly  as 
possible."  He  is  to  "  hold  possession  of  San  Francisco, 
even  while  "  he  encourages  "  the  people  to  neutrality, 
self-government,  and  friendship."  Or  again,  in  another 
likewise  late-coming  instruction,  he  is  ordered  to  "  en- 
deavor to  establish  the  supremacy  of  the  American  flag 
without  any  strife  with  the  people  of  California ; "  and, 
"if  California  separates  herself  from  our  enemy,  the 
central  Mexican  government,  and  establishes  a  govern- 
ment of  its  own  under  the  auspices  of  the  American 
flag,"  Sloat  is  to  "  take  such  measures  as  will  best  pro- 
mote the  attachment  of  the  people  of  California  to  the 
United  States."  He  is  to  bear  in  mind  "  that  this 
country  desires  to  find  in  California  a  friend,  and  not  an 
enemy ;  to  be  connected  with  it  by  near  ties ;  to  hold 
possession  of  it,  at  least  during  the  war ;  and  to  hold 
that  possession,  if  possible,  with  the  consent  of  the  in- 
habitants." There  is  no  reason  for  supposing  these 
later  instructions  directed  to  Sloat  to  have  been  in  any 
wise  at  variance  with  his  earlier  orders,  not  all  of  which 
have  been  published.  It  is  plain,  then,  that  Sloat  had 
a  very  curious  and  delicate  commission  intrusted  to  his 
care.  He  was  to  get  possession  of  the  port  of  San  Fran- 
cisco whenever  war  should  have  begun  ;  yet,  even  then, 
he  was  not,  unless  absolutely  forced  thereto,  to  levy  war 
against  the  inhabitants  of  California.  He  was,  on  the 
contrary,  to  treat  them  as  friends,  who  had  unfortu- 
nately become  involved   in  the  Mexican  difficulty  by 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND  THE  BEAR  FLAG.    127 

reason  of  their  merely  nominal  connection  with  the 
central  government.  He  was  to  invite  them  to  cotV' 
tinuG  thsir  self-government,  while  he  was  to  urge  them 
to  separate  peacefully  from  Mexico,  and  to  come  over 
to  the  side  of  the  United  States.  He  was  to  cultivate 
their  good-will,  and  as  far  as  possible  to  confine  him- 
self to  a  naval  occupation  of  their  ports.  If  the  reader 
sees  herein  anything  of  a  nature  to  perplex  and  par- 
alyze Sloat's  mind  whenever  he  should  learn  the  contrast 
between  his  instructions  and  the  policy  that  on  his  ar- 
rival he  found  under  active  process  of  development  by 
Captain  Fremont  and  Lieutenant  Gillespie,  as  a  conse- 
quence of  the  latter's  secret  mission,  we  must  frankly 
admit  that  we  cannot  explain  the  variance  by  any  hy- 
pothesis consistent  with  wisdom  in  plotting  and  fidelity 
in  execution.  We  must  indeed  add  that  yet  later  in- 
structions to  Sloat,  namely,  those  prepared  July  12, 
1846,  after  instructions  had  already  been  issued  to  Gen- 
eral S.  W.  Kearny  for  an  overland  expedition  to  Cali- 
fornia, more  explicitly  contemplate  an  occupation  of  the 
whole  Department  by  Sloat's  force.  For  by  the  time 
these  instructions  were  issued  the  Mexican  War  was 
well  under  way,  and  the  government  was  unwilling  to 
risk  any  futher  delays.  In  these  instructions,  then, 
Sloat  is  expected,  under  the  rights  that  belong  to  his 
country  as  belligerent,  to  take  entire  possession  of  Up- 
per California,  so  that,  at  the  conclusion  of  peace,  there 
may  be  no  doubts  as  to  such  actual  possession.  And 
now  indeed  he  is  required,  as  he  was  not  before,  to  es- 
tablish a  civil  government  of  his  own  in  the  territory. 
But  still  he  is  assured  that  "  in  selecting  persons  to  hold 
office,  due  respect  should  be  had  to  the  wishes  of  the 
people  of  California,"  as  well  as  to  the  actual  possessors 


/^ 


128  CALIFORNIA. 

of  authority  in  that  province."  And  finally,  August  13, 
1846,  he  is  instructed  to  give  the  people  "  as  much  lib- 
erty of  self-government  as  is  consistent  with  the  general 
occupation  of  the  country  by  the  United  States." 

But  perhaps,  as  some  one  will  object,  when  the  gov- 
ernment said  that  "  a  connection  between  California  and 
Mexico  is  supposed  scarcely  to  exist,"  they  referred  to 
their  secret  expectation  that  Captain  Fremont  would, 
ere  Sloat  acted,  have  severed  the  *'  connection."  When 
they  talked  of  "neutrality,"  they  meant  the  kind  of 
"  neutrality  "  that  Captain  Fremont  would  by  this  time 
have  enforced  by  the  aid  of  rebels  and  rifles.  When 
they  talked  of  "  self-government,"  they  meant  self-gov- 
ernment as  administered  by  Captain  Fremont's  survey- 
ing party.  And  when  they  talked  of  "  the  wishes  of 
the  people  "  and  of  "  friendship,"  they  were  simply  em- 
ploying a  little  irony.  The  text  of  Commodore  Sloat's 
dispatches,  if  given  in  full  as  Mr.  Bancroft  wrote 
them,  would  completely  refute  this  view.  The  opposi- 
tion of  the  Sloat  instructions  and  of  the  fourth  plan 
must  be  perfectly  evident  to  any  one  who  will  read  the 
instructions,  and  the  matter  would  be  inexplicable,  and 
would  give  rise  to  problems  that  we  might  forever  and 
very  blindly  discuss,  were  there  not  now  a  very  differ- 
ent and  shorter  road  out  of  our  perplexities  about  what 
the  government  wanted.  But  let  this  opposition  have 
at  least  its  obvious  weight. 

We  have  dwelt  so  long  on  all  the  indirect  means  of 
getting  at  the  government's  plan,  for  the  sake  of  reduc- 
ing certain  doubts  and  of  cutting  off  certain  questions 
that  would  otherwise  come  before  us  when  we  at  length 
mention  the  one  direct,  long-hidden,  now  finally  accessi- 
ble, authoritative  expression  of  the  government's  plan 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND   THE  BEAR  FLAG.    129 

itself.  I  refer  to  the  instructions  that  Gillespie  brought 
from  Secretary  Buchanan,  and  in  all  noteworthy  prob- 
ability to  the  only  official  instructions  of  which  Captain 
Fremont  could  have  had  any  knowledge  at  the  moment 
of  acting.  Whether  by  Gillespie's  own  deliberate  and 
unheard-of  treachery  they  were  falsified  to  the  captain, 
whether  because  of  the  "  family  cipher  "  letter  he  con- 
cluded to  neglect  them,  whether  he  determined  of  his 
own  will  to  take  the  risk  of  the  moment  and  disobey 
them,  whether  he  never  even  listened  to  find  out  their 
plain  meaning,  or,  if  he  did,  by  what  very  natural  mis- 
fortune of  memory  he  forty  years  later  came  to  miscon- 
ceive them  in  his  statement  to  me,^  and  by  what  won- 
drous good  fortune  he  has  so  long  occupied  a  position 
such  that  no  government  official  could  venture  to  confront 
him  with  the  facts,  —  all  these  questions  I  prejudge  not 
and  discuss  not  now.  The  historical  fact  about  the 
instructions  is  the  important  thing.  I  have  given  Gen- 
eral Fremont's  view,  and  I  must  also  give  the  facts. 

VIII.      ONLY    ONE   DISPATCH   CONTAINS    THE     SECRET 
MISSION. 

No  doubt  can  properly  exist  that  Gillespie  brought 
07ie  official  dispatch,  and  one  only,  to  any  agent  in 
California.  He  was  sharply  questioned  about  the  mat- 
ter by  the  Claims  Committee,  and  went  over  the  ground 
several  times.  He  was  then  speaking  before  people 
who  were  quite  able  to  control  his  statements  by  confi- 
dential inquiries  at  the  government  offices,  and  who  in 
fact  did  get  a  confidential  copy  of  the  very  instructions 

1  He  did  not  misstate  them  before  the  Claims  Committee,  but  he  was 
cautiously  reticent  about  them,  as  we  have  seen,  in  this  and  in  all  his 
earlier  official  expressions. 


130  CALIFORNIA. 

carried.  He  was  also  testifying  in  Colonel  Fremont's 
own  case  and  in  his  favor.  If  he  had  had  two  sets  of 
instructions,  one  to  Larkin  and  one  to  Captain  Fre- 
mont, there  was  every  reason,  for  the  sake  of  the  credit 
of  the  hero  of  the  occasion,  why  Gillespie  should  have 
stated  the  fact.  But  he  does  not  state  such  a  fact  in  his 
recorded  testimony  before  the  committee.  What  he 
distinctly  says  is  that  he  had  a  dispatch  to  Larkin,  and 
repeated  it  to  Captain  Fremont,  having  been  instructed 
so  to  do.  And  for  Captain  Fremont  he  had  his  own 
letter  of  introduction,  which  imported  nothing  but  the 
trustworthiness  of  the  bearer ;  and  he  had  the  Benton 
packet.  That  is  all  ^  save,  to  be  sure,  Gillespie's  own 
personal  instructions,  which  he  communicated  to  Captain 
Fremont,  and  which  undoubtedly  were,  as  he  says,  "  to 
watch  over  the  interests  of  the  United  States  in  Califor- 
nia." How  he  was  to  "watch"  we  shall  learn.  He 
was,  however,  as  we  shall  see,  to  cooperate  with  Larkin. 
Gillespie's  testimony  makes  clear,  then,  that  he  can 
have  had  but  one  dispatch,  in  addition  to  his  own  per- 
sonal instructions.  Even  if  he  had  had  two  official 
dispatches,  one  to  Larkin  and  one  to  Captain  Fremont, 
not  only  his  silence  about  the  latter  as  a  separate  dis- 

1  Claims  Committee  Report,  p.  30  :  "I  was  bearer  of  the  duplicate 
of  a  dispatch  to  the  United  States  consul  at  Monterey,  as  well  also  a 
packet  for  J.  C.  Fremont,  Esq.,  and  a  letter  of  introduction  to  the  lat- 
ter gentleman  from  the  Honorable  James  Buchanan.  The  former  I  de- 
stroyed before  entering  the  port  of  Vera  Cruz,  having  committed  it  to 
memory.  The  packet  and  letter  of  introduction  I  delivered  to  Captain 
Fremont,  upon  the  9th  of  May,  1846,  in  the  mountains  of  Oregon." 
P.  31 :  '*  I  delivered  my  letter  of  introduction  and  the  packet  intrusted 
to  me  to  Captain  Frt^mont,  and  made  him  acquainted  with  the  wishes 
of  the  government,  which  were  the  same  as  stated  above  for  my  own 
guidance."  P.  32  :  "I  was  also  directed  to  show  to  Colonel  FrA 
mont  the  duplicate  of  the  dispatch  to  Mr.  Larkin." 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND   THE  BEAR  FLAG.    131 

patch  would  be  inexplicable,  but  the  position  of  Captain 
Fremont  at  the  moment  of  action  would  be  precisely 
the  same  as  with  only  one  dispatch.  For  Gillespie's 
words,  uttered,  be  it  remembered,  in  Colonel  Fremont's 
own  cause  and  behalf,  before  the  committee,  in  1848, 
while  the  whole  matter  was  fresh  in  all  their  minds,  are 
as  just  quoted :  "  /  was  directed  to  show  to  Colonel 
Fremont  the  duplicate  of  the  dispatch  to  LarkinJ"  So 
that  although  General  Fremont  so  kindly  took  the 
trouble  to  demonstrate  for  me,  in  our  recent  interview, 
that  Larkin  could  not  have  had  any  secret  mission  from 
the  government  through  Gillespie,  the  plain  evidence  is 
that,  unless  Gillespie  was  guilty  of  wanton  and  unheard- 
of  treachery,  the  Larkin  mission  must  have  been  at  the 
time  perfectly  well  explained  to  the  young  captain,  who 
has  since  so  completely  forgotten  it,  and  who  now  so 
sincerely  deems  it  impossible. 

That  the  Larkin  dispatch  was,  however,  the  only  offi- 
cial dispatch  brought  to  California  by  Gillespie  in  this 
affair  is  shown,  not  merely  by  Gillespie's  own  testimony, 
but  by  every  scrap  of  older  testimony  that  I  have  been  in 
any  wise  able  to  discover  bearing  on  this  question.  Al- 
though Gillespie  testified  in  Colonel  Fremont's  own  cause 
to  the  dehvery  at  Klamath  Lake  of  the  Larkin  dispatch, 
Colonel  Fremont  at  that  time  gave,  in  his  own  testimony, 
no  hint  of  having  received  two  official  dispatches,  such 
as  he  must  have  received  in  case  he  had  his  own  inde- 
pendent official  dispatch.  He  merely  left  out  Larkin's 
name  in  his  testimony.  Furthermore,  while  the  secret 
Larkin  mission  can  be  traced,  as  mentioned,  more  or 
less  covertly,  in  numerous  public  documents,  no  public 
document  can  be  found.  I  think,  that  contains  any  trace 
of  a  record  of  a  mission  to  Captain  Fremont.     By  the 


132  CALIFORNIA. 

courtesy  of  the  present  secretaries,  I  have  official  an- 
swers from  the  State,  War,  and  Navy  Departments 
which  assure  me  that  in  all  of  them  careful  search  fails 
to  reveal  any  record  of  any  instruction  to  a  secret  agent 
in  California  at  that  time,  save  the  Larkin  dispatch ; 
while  this,  notwithstanding  its  very  delicate  and  con- 
fidential character,  remains  yet  on  record. 

As  an  absolutely  insurmountable  evidence,  however, 
on  this  point,  I  have  at  last  to  present  Captain  Fre- 
mont's own  original  confession  to  his  father-in-law,  in 
the  before-mentioned  letter  of  May  24,  1846.  I  should 
have  presented  it  earlier,  were  it  not  that  the  captain, 
after  all,  is  supposed,  as  we  have  seen,  to  have  corre- 
sponded in  those  days  with  the  venerable  senator  in  a 
*'  family  cipher."  What  he  said  might  therefore,  taken 
alone,  be  viewed  as  containing  some  secret  meaning. 
But  the  coincidence  of  the  statement  now  to  be  quoted 
with  the  whole  mass  of  the  historical  evidence  as  just 
presented  is  simply  overwhelming.  The  literal  mean- 
ing of  the  young  captain's  words  is  undoubtedly  to  be 
accepted,  and  therewith  ends  forever  the  theory  of  a 
separate  dispatch,  not  identical  with  the  Larkin  dis- 
patch, and  brought  by  Gillespie  to  Captain  Fremont  in 
person.  "  Your  letter,"  says  the  captain  to  the  senator, 
"  led  me  to  expect  some  communication  from  him  [Buch- 
anan is  the  antecedent  of  Aim],  "  hut  I  received  noth- 
ing.^' The  italics  are  as  printed  in  the  copy  before 
rae.^ 

How  completely  our  memories  frequently  mislead  us  ! 
General  Fremont  not  only  assured  me,  but  even  demon- 
strated to  me,  as  above  shown,  that  he  was,  save  Gil- 
lespie, the  only  secret  agent  of  the  government  in  the 

2  See,  as  before,  the  National  Intelligencer  of  November  12, 1846. 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND  THE  BEAR  FLAG.    133 

territory  who  was  intrusted  with  this  business,  Larkin 
being  an  almost  impossible  person  for  the  purpose.  But 
the  indubitable  facts  of  the  record  are  that  no  secret 
official  commission  was  brought  by  Gillespie  to  anybody 
but  Larkin,  and  that  Captain  Fremont  himself  con- 
fessed, in  writing,  in  1846,  that  he  had  no  secret  mission 
from  the  government,  while,  as  Gillespie's  testimony 
shows.  Captain  Fremont  must  have  known  of  La/rkvrCs 
mission  / 

IX.    THE    MYSTERY    AS    EXPOUNDED    BY    THE    ONE    DIS- 
PATCH. 

One  official  dispatch,  then,  and  one  only,  was  brought 
to  any  secret  agent,  and  this,  the  Larkin  dispatch,  would 
still  be  as  inaccessible  as  ever,  and  our  quandary  as 
hopeless,  were  it  not  for  the  enterprise  and  good  for- 
tune of  Mr.  H.  H.  Bancroft.  In  his  excellent  and  now 
often  herein  named  treasure,  the  Larkin  papers,  are 
two  copies,  both  authentic,  of  the  Larkin  dispatch  as 
brought  by  Gillespie.  One  is  the  original,  sent  around 
the  Horn  by  the  Congress.  It  came  with  Commo- 
dore Stockton,  and  arrived  after  its  days  of  immedi- 
ate usefulness  were  numbered.  The  other  copy  is  the 
one  written  out  by  Gillespie  from  memory  when  he 
landed  at  Monterey.  This  copy  is  accurate,  save  in  one 
or  two  wholly  unimportant  verbal  respects.  The  gal- 
lant lieutenant,  certainly,  so  far  told  the  truth.  These 
documents  have  been  pointed  out  to  me  at  the  Bancroft 
library,  and  it  was  there  that  my  attention  was  first  at- 
tracted to  their  significance.  Much  as  I  have  since 
labored  to  make  this  investigation  my  own,  much  as  I 
have  weighed  for  myself  and  arranged  and  rearranged 
all  the  evidence  that  I  could  find  with  a  view  to  being 


134  CALIFORNIA. 

as  independent  as  possible,  much  as  I  have  toiled  to 
get  wholly  new  evidence,  I  must  still  frankly  admit,  as 
I  gladly  do,  that  without  Mr.  Bancroft's  documents  I 
should  have  been  as  unable  to  find  my  way  out  of 
the  labyrinth  as  have  been  all  past  investigators  of  this 
matter.  Even  the  new  evidence  that  I  have  now  found 
would  in  large  part  have  been  sealed  to  me.  And  in 
the  end  I  can  prove  nothing  that  gives  any  other  sig- 
nificance to  these  documents  than  the  reader  is  already 
quite  prepared,  after  the  foregoing,  to  give  them  him- 
self, as  soon  as  he  comes  to  know  what  they  contain. 
It  is  a  curious  fact  in  this  matter  that,  the  clew  once 
found,  absolutely  all  the  disinterested  evidence  is  seen 
to  point  in  the  same  direction ;  while,  until  the  clew  is 
found,  the  evidence  looks  like  a  mass  of  confusion.  Yet 
without  all  the  foregoing,  and  without  some  hint  of  the 
interests  that  have  for  a  generation  forbidden  the  true 
state  of  the  case  to  come  to  the  public  knowledge,  and 
that  have  at  last  ended  in  giving  the  hero  of  the  tale 
such  a  curiously  mistaken  personal  impression  and  mem- 
ory of  his  own  share  in  the  matter,  no  reader  could  ap- 
preciate the  solution  of  the  mystery,  or  understand  its 
historical  significance  as  a  mystery,  or  enjoy  the  true 
humor  of  this  life-long  effort  of  a  disobedient  officer  to 
seem  to  himself  a  hero. 

Here,  then,  to  sum  it  all  up,  is  our  country's  honor 
involved  in  a  violation  of  the  laws  of  nations,  under 
circumstances  of  peculiar  atrocity  :  a  war  brought 
among  a  peaceful,  and,  in  part,  cordially  friendly  peo- 
ple ;  anarchy  and  irregular  hostilities  threatened  and 
begun  without  any  provocation,  and  with  consequences 
that  were  bad  enough,  as  it  happened,  and  that  would 
have  been  far  worse  had  not  regular  warfare  just  then, 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND  THE  BEAR  FLAG.    135 

by  a  happy  accident,  announced  its  robust  and  soon 
irresistible  presence.  These  irregular  deeds  are  the 
immediate  work  of  a  gallant,  energetic,  and  able  young 
officer,  who  thenceforth  gets  general  credit  as  faith- 
ful secret  agent  of  his  government,  and  heroic  de- 
fender of  his  countrymen,  as  well  as  savior  to  us 
of  the  territory  of  California.  His  reputation  gained 
in  this  affair  nearly  makes  him  president  in  1856. 
The  warfare  in  question  is  also  thenceforth  publicly 
justified  by  unfounded  reports  of  Californian  hos- 
tility. All  this  is  authorized,  as  the  story  goes,  by  a 
government  that  thus  orders  sixty  men  to  distress  a  vast 
and  ill-organized  land,  without  providing  any  support 
whereby  the  work  of  their  rifles  can  be  promptly  utilized 
to  found  any  new  and  stable  government  in  place  of  the 
one  that  they  are  commanded  crueUy  to  harass,  with- 
out warning  to  assault,  and  thus  unlawfully  to  over- 
throw. The  official  authority  for  all  this  is  one  dispatch 
and  the  contents  of  the  "  family  cipher,"  in  case  they 
were  officially  authorized.  The  dispatch  was  brought, 
as  the  Claims  Committee  Report  shows,  to  Larkin,  and 
repeated  to  Captain  Fremont  by  Gillespie  at  Klamath 
Lake.  Is  all  the  foregoing  a  true  interpretation  of  the 
dispatch  ?     Such  is  the  delicate  personal  problem. 

The  solution  is  that  Consul  Larkin  was,  by  this  dis- 
patch, instructed  peacefully  to  intrigue  for  the  secession 
of  the  Department  from  Mexico,  by  the  will  of  its  own 
inhabitants,  as  expressed  by  their  own  constituted  author- 
ities. He  was  to  be  discreet,  cautious,  and  alert ;  and  he 
was  to  intrigue  to  this  one  end,  and  with  authority  also. 
He  was  made  secret  agent  for  that  purpose,  and  per- 
mitted to  draw  a  special  salary  as  such  (six  dollars  per 
day).     He  was  to  assure  the  Californian  authorities  of 


136  CALIFORNIA. 

the  good-will  and  sympathy  of  his  government,  in  their 
controversies  with  Mexico ;  to  induce  them,  if  possible, 
to  separate  voluntarily  from  that  country;  to  promise 
them,  if  they  did  separate,  our  "  kind  offices  as  a  sister 
republic."  He  was  to  warn  them  against  European 
agents  and  intrigues,  and  to  assure  them  that  we  would 
help  them  against  the  encroachments  of  any  such  for- 
eign power,  and  that  we  would  fight  side  by  side  with 
them  against  any  European  invader.  By  all  such  means 
he  was  to  commit  us  to  friendship,  and  to  a  policy  of 
peace  and  good-will  towards  the  Calif ornian  people.  He 
was  to  draw  them  to  us  by  fair  speeches.  He  was  thus, 
indeed,  to  anticipate,  as  is  evident,  our  coming  troubles 
with  Mexico  (which,  of  course,  are  kept  in  the  back- 
ground here)  ;  but  he  was  to  anticipate  these  troubles,  as 
we  can  now  see,  by  saving  the  coming  naval  command- 
ers any  vexations  when  they  arrived  to  seize  the  ports. 
Although,  very  naturally,  no  reference  is  made  to  these 
future  events  in  the  dispatch,  a  single  reference  in  our 
own  minds  to  the  previously  quoted  instructions  to  Sloat 
will  show  us  how  these  two  sets  of  operations  fit,  like  the 
halves  of  the  broken  ring  in  the  old  ballad-story,  into 
the  unity  of  one  plan.  Who  lost  the  one  half  of  the 
ring  we  now  know. 

The  language  of  this  dispatch  is  characteristic  of 
Buchanan.  It  is  very  cautious,  but  still,  in  view  of  the 
nature  of  the  case,  very  plain.  It  begins  with  a  refer- 
ence to  the  information  that  Larkin  has  long  been  giving 
to  the  department  about  California.  The  government 
is  deeply  interested  in  all  this,  for  the  United  States 
take  great  interest  in  California.  And  the  United 
States  government  has  reason  to  fear  European  aggres- 
sors there  ;  for  Larkin  has  warned  the  State  Department 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND  THE  BEAR  FLAG.    137 

of  the  signs  of  such.  To  counteract  these,  Larkin  must 
appeal,  says  the  dispatch,  to  the  people  of  the  country ; 
must  let  them  know  where  their  interest  lies,  and  who 
are  their  true  friends.  "  On  all  proper  occasions  you 
should  not  fail  prudently  to  warn  the  government  and 
people  of  California  of  the  danger  of  such  an  interfer- 
ence to  their  peace  and  happiness ;  to  inspire  them  with 
a  jealousy  of  European  dominion ;  and  to  arouse  in  their 
bosoms  that  love  of  liberty  and  independence  so  natural 
to  the  American  continent."  And,  farther  on,  "  If  the 
people  should  desire  to  unite  their  destiny  with  ours, 
they  would  be  received  as  brethren,  whenever  this  can 
be  done  without  affording  Mexico  just  cause  of  com- 
plaint." Ah,  soothing  Buchanan  !  Nobody's  loyalty 
shall  be  shocked !  Again,  the  United  States  goyern- 
ment  "  would  vigorously  interpose  to  prevent"  California 
"  from  becoming  a  British  or  French  colony.  In  this 
they  might  surely  expect  the  aid  of  the  Californians 
themselves."  And  yet  more,  the  government  is  glad  to 
hear  how  friendly  the  Californian  authorities  have  re- 
cently been :  "  You  may  assure  them  of  the  cordial 
sympathy  and  friendship  of  the  president,  and  that  their 
conduct  is  appreciated  by  him  as  it  deserves." 

To  carry  on  the  "  prudent  warning  "  with  effect  and 
authority,  Larkin  is  thereupon  made  secret  agent.  He 
is  to  exert  his  influence  very  prudently,  and  is  to  avoid 
arousing  suspicions  on  the  part  of  English  or  French 
agents.  He  is  to  collect  diligently  information  about 
American  interests  in  the  Department.  Gillespie,  "a 
gentleman  in  whom  the  president  reposes  entire  confi- 
dence," has  seen  these  instructions,  and  will  "  cooperate 
as  a  confidential  agent  with  you  in  carrying  them  into 
execution."     Among  other  things  that  these  two  are  to 


138  CALIFORNIA. 

treat  in  their  information  to  the  department  is  men- 
tioned a  description  of  the  "  character  of  the  principal 
persons  "  in  the  Cahfornian  government  "  and  of  other 
distinguished  and  influential  citizens."  And  a  general 
requirement  is  made  to  collect  all  possible  information 
about  all  matters  that  can  interest  the  department. 
Captain  Fremont's  name  is  not  once  mentioned  in  the 
dispatch. 

I  almost  fear  to  insult  the  reader's  intiUigence  by 
pointing  out  at  too  great  length  the  utter  impossibility 
of  any  kind  of  reconciliation  between  this  and  the  now 
dead  and  lamented  hypothesis  of  the  "  fourth  ^jlan  "  of 
our  list.  Shall  we  say  that  it  is  unnecessary  to  make 
careful  and  expensive  inquiries  about  the  personal  char- 
acters of  prominent  Californian  officials,  if  one  sends 
by  the  same  messenger  an  order  to  chase  them  all  out 
of  office  by  means  of  an  improvised  armed  force  ?  Do 
you  have  to  know  at  Washington  the  character  of  a 
"  distinguished  and  influential  citizen,"  in  order  to  put 
a  bullet  into  him  in  California  ?  Shall  we  ask  whether 
expecting  "  the  aid  of  the  Californians  themselves " 
against  the  supposed  European  agents  in  the  territory 
means  requiring  as  many  of  the  Californian  chiefs  as 
are  within  reach  to  be  taken  prisoners  and  shut  up  in  a 
fort  by  the  first  set  of  rovers  that  will  volunteer  to  do 
it  ?  Shall  we  wonder  whether  these  were  the  presi- 
dent's delicate  means  of  expressing  his  "  cordial  sym- 
pathy," and  his  "  appreciation  "  of  the  friendship  that 
Larkin  has  described,  and  that  the  department  fully 
beheved  in,  and  that  even  until  the  very  moment  of  the 
outbreak  was  always  experienced  in  California  by  all 
Americans  save  some  vagabonds  and  their  friends,  and 
this  aggressive  armed  surveying  party  itself  ?     But  are 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND  THE  BEAR  FLAG.    139 

these  questions  at  all  necessary  ?  Nay,  of  opposition  we 
need  not  speak.  That  is  too  plain.  But  of  the  perfidy 
and  the  treachery  we  may  speak,  of  which,  of  course, 
nobody  need  be  called  actually  guilty,  but  of  which  our 
government  would  have  been  guilty  if,  by  any  conceiva- 
ble wantonness  of  folly,  it  had  at  once  given  countenance 
to  the  fourth  plan  and  to  the  plan  of  the  Larkin  dis- 
patch. Such  treachery  would  indeed  have  disgraced 
any  petty  Oriental  prince  in  a  war  with  a  neighbor 
worthy  of  his  meanness ;  and  yet  just  such  would  have 
been  our  national  treachery  had  we,  say  through  Senator 
Benton,  instructed  the  gallant  captain  in  the  plan  in 
which  a  false  tradition  (and  his  own  memory)  declare 
him  to  have  been  instructed,  and  had  we  meanwhile 
ordered  Larkin  to  use  his  position  as  consul,  as  old  res- 
ident, and  as  personal  friend,  to  lull  to  sleep  all  possible 
suspicion  in  Californian  breasts,  and  to  persuade  the 
people  and  the  officials  to  lay  aside,  as  it  were,  their 
arms,  lest  haply  they  might  have  wherewithal  to  resist 
the  gallant  captain  whenever  his  hour  should  come  for 
defending  his  countrymen  against  the  "  oppressors  "  ! 
And  this  perfidy,  this  unheard-of  treachery,  what  under 
heaven  would  it  have  been  worth  to  us  ?  To  exasperate 
beyond  endurance  a  friendly  people,  to  insure  all  the 
possible  causes  that  could  combine  to  make  their  chief, 
men  hate  us  forever  and  the  people  fight  us  as  savagely 
as  they  could,  —  this  would  have  been  our  aim.  Not 
even  the  most  cold-blooded  of  tyrants  could  have  re- 
joiced in  such  a  prospect ;  because,  as  we  were  situated, 
we  wanted  California  to  come  to  us  as  prosperous  and 
as  peaceful  a  land  as  possible.  If  we  desired  to  steal 
our  neighbor's  fine  horse,  why  should  we  first  coax  him 
into  confinement,  and  then  scourge   him  with  whips  in 


140  CALIFORNIA. 

his  stall,  to  make  him  break  his  bones  ?  Yet  such  de- 
structive and  atrocious  folly  would  be  precisely  the  thing 
involved  in  the  choice  of  a  situation  with  Larkin  at 
Monterey,  intriguing  under  orders,  and  developing  per- 
fectly obvious  designs,  assuring  officials  in  private  that 
we  were  the  true  friends,  seeking  to  persuade  them  to 
declare  their  independence  and  to  come  over  to  us  as  a 
"  sister  republic  ;  "  while  the  gallant  Captain  Fremont, 
not  driven  to  bay,  nor  pursued,  nor  in  danger,  should 
be  quietly,  yes,  stealthily,  getting  supplies  from  the 
coast,  on  a  representation  to  the  United  States  naval 
officers  that  he  is  going  East,  and  should  be  "  watching 
events  "  until  he  saw  a  chance  to  attack.  Given  a  little 
longer  delay  of  the  coming  of  Sloat  and  of  the  regular 
war,  and  what  horrors  might  not  such  a  fashion  of  be- 
ginning a  war  have  produced,  by  arousing  popular  pas- 
sions ?  And  if  such  things  had  been  suggested  to  the 
cabinet  at  Washington,  where  the  true  impotence  of  the 
Californian  military  power  was  of  course  unknown,  what 
possible  company  of  fools  could  have  chosen  this  use- 
less and  dismal  perfidy  ?  Obviously  we  shall  suspect  no 
man  of  deliberately  planning  any  such  a  situation,  least  of 
all  the  men  whose  personal  interests  carelessly  brought 
it  to  pass.  The  cabinet  could  not  have  planned  it.  If 
Senator  Benton  advised  Captain  Fremont's  operations, 
he  too  must  surely  have  done  so  in  ignorance  of  the 
cabinet  plan,  and  cannot  have  planned  the  situation  as 
it  resulted.  And  that  Captain  Fremont  and  Lieutenant 
Gillespie  themselves  should  venture  on  producing  such 
a  situation  can  be  explained  as  possible  only  on  the 
ground  that  the  plan  of  their  willfully  disobedient  oper- 
ations so  occupied  their  minds  that  they  gave  no  sort  of 
vational  consideration  to  Larkin's  position  and  work,  or 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND   THE  BEAR  FLAG.    141 

to  the  situation  itself. '  Folly  it  may  have  been  in  Cap- 
tain Fremont,  or  only  a  result  produced  by  the  "  family 
cipher."  For  the  government  it  would  have  been  the 
foulest  and  silliest  of  treacheries  to  ordain  these  two 
things  at  Washington  in  one  cabinet.  No  reader  can 
even  dream  that  it  was  done. 

X.     SUPPLEMENTARY   EVIDENCE    AND    SUMMARY. 

So  much  for  the  significance  of  the  dispatch.  All 
the  credit  of  our  knowing  about  it  to-day  belongs,  as  I 
have  said,  to  Mr.  Hubert  Howe  Bancroft.  His  enter- 
prise in  collecting  rescued  the  original  from  utter  loss  to 
the  world.  The  exhaustive  researches  into  the  Califor- 
nia documents  of  the  time,  undertaken  under  his  direc- 
tion, made  clear  to  him  its  significance,  which  I,  however 
independently  I  have  tried  to  study  the  matter,  can  in 
the  end  only  accept  as  obvious.  His  library  is  the  truly 
original  source  here,  and  my  research,  although  other- 
wise independent,  is  at  this  one  most  important  place 
but  a  following  of  his  already  beaten  trail.  And  only 
by  his  permission  do  I  here  summarize  a  document  that 
I  still  feel  to  be  his  property.  But  yet,  in  using  the 
document  I  have  been  able  to  discover  a  few  new  facts 
that  throw  light  upon  its  origin  and  relations.  When  I 
had  seen  and  considered  it  at  his  library,  I  was  indeed 
as  sure  of  its  authenticity  as  everybody  must  be  who 
examines  it.  But  still  I  felt  that  an  opponent  might 
possibly  assert  it  to  be,  say,  a  production  of  Larkin  him- 
self in  after  time,  in  a  fit  of  jealousy  towards  General 
Fremont.  Or  again,  some  discoverable  paper  in  Wash- 
ington archives  might  put  it  in  a  modified  light,  or  might 
supplement  it  by  something  valuable.  I  determined, 
tiierefore,  to  apply  in  person  at  Washington,  and  did  so 


142  CALIFORNIA. 

with  a  general  result,  through  the  courtesy  of  the  de^ 
partments,  that  has  already  appeared  in  this  chapter. 
The  Larkin  dispatch  is  on  record  at  the  State  Depart* 
ment,  but  there  is  no  trace  of  any  other  secret  instruc- 
tion concerning  this  business  there  or  elsewhere  in 
Washington    department  records.     This    largely  nega^ 

^"^  tive  result  is  in  itself,  however,  highly  important. 

m^.jtJi^  This   further   fact,  however,  I  must   record.     While 

_x-4-*.    the  secretary  of  state  kindly  let  me  see  the  Larkin  dis- 

'^^^  patch  as  a  whole,  there  was  one  portion  that,  as  I  at 
first  learned,  was  still  regarded  as  confidential,  that 
could  not  be  shown,  and  that  accordingly  was  covered. 
As  I  had  with  me  a  copy  taken  in  San  Francisco  from 
Mr.  Bancroft's  original,  which  of  course  included  this 
covered  passage,  I  was  able  to  submit  this  copy  to  offi- 
cial inspection,  and  so  to  get  a  courteous  permission,  in 
view  of  the  fact  that  the  document  was  actually  no  longer 
a  secret,  to  inspect  finally  the  whole  of  the  precious 
official  manuscript.  Since  then  I  have  received  a  regu- 
larly certified  copy  of  all  but  the  purely  business  details 
at  the  end.  This  inspection  and  copy  prove  that  the 
authenticity  of  Mr.  H.  H.  Bancroft's  document  is  not 
only  in  itself  certain,  but  is  a  matter  of  permanent  offi- 
cial record. 

I  venture  to  repeat  this  otherwise  unimportant  fact, 
about  the  still  remaining  trace  of  secrecy  at  the  State 
Department,  as  a  collateral  evidence  that  the  document 
has  been  considered  to  retain  its  genuine  and  confiden- 
tial importance  ever  since  its  original  production.  The 
covered  passage  was  one  especially  referring  to  Larkin's 
most  significant  intrigues.  Of  course  this  Larkin  in- 
trigue was  itself  no  very  noble  project  for  a  great  gov- 
ernment to  engage  in,  and  there  is  obvious  reason  for 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND  THE  BEAR  FLAG.    143 

the  delicacy  wherewith  a  veil  has  been  kept  over  its 
face  from  that  day  even  until  now.  It  is  evident  also 
that  without  Mr.  H.  H.  Bancroft's  previous  help  my 
curiosity  at  Washington  could  not  properly  have  been 
fuUy  satisfied,  notwithstanding  the  marked  good-will  of 
all  persons  concerned  in  answering  my  application.  He 
has  therefore  still  the  full  credit  of  making  the  paper 
accessible. 

I  must  now  add  from  my  Washington  investigation 
one  of  the  most  curious  and  amusing  scraps  of  minor 
documentary  evidence  that  it  was  ever  my  good  fortune 
to  hear  of.  The  light  that  it  throws  is  indeed  not  very 
dazzling,  but  it  is  wholly  accidental  and  unexpected ; 
and  yet  what  it  shows  is  something  of  exactly  the  sort 
that  we  might  have  expected  in  case  all  the  foregoing 
view  is  true,  but  not  in  case  the  common  tradition  of  the 
past  is  true.  In  the  ordinary  "  Letters  to  Consuls  "  of 
the  State  Department,  in  a  volume  that  seemed  not  to  be 
of  an  especially  confidential  character,  I  found  two  busi- 
ness letters,  apparently  mere  bits  of  routine,  both  of  them 
surely  as  free  themselves  from  any  trace  of  a  secret  na- 
ture as  well  could  be.  My  eye  was  attracted  by  the  fa- 
miliar names.  The  letters,  oddly  enough,  though  copied 
(like  all  other  consular  letters,  as  I  suppose)  into  the 
regular  books,  were  this  time  marked  "  Cancelled,'"  each 
for  itself,  the  word  being  written  across  the  lines  of  the 
letter.  That  is,  very  plainly,  after  being  entered,  the 
originals  were  not  sent  but  destroyed.  Thus  a  mere  ac- 
cident preserved  the  record  of  a  little  change  of  mind 
at  the  State  Department.  And  these  superseded  let- 
ters, what  said  they  ? 

The  first  is  dated  October  27,  1845,  and  runs:  — 


144  CALIFORNIA. 

John  Black,  Esq".,  U.  S.  C.  Mexico. 

Sir,  —  Enclosed  is  a  communication  for  Thomas  O.  Lar- 
kin.  Esq".,  Consul  of  the  United  States  at  Monterey,  Califor- 
nia, which  you  are  requested  to  forward  to  him,  via  Mazat- 
lan,  by  some  early  and  safe  opportunity. 

I  am  sir,  etc., 

James  Buchanan. 

The  second  letter  has  the  same  date  and  was  evidently 
to  be  a  part  of  the  inclosure  of  the  first.  It  was  to  have 
a  second  inclosure  inside  itself. 

Thomas  O.  Larkin,  Esq".,  U.  S.  Consul,  Monterey. 

Sir,  —  I  enclose  herewith  a  package  for  Captain  Fremont, 
of  whose  movements  you  may  be  enabled  to  obtain  some  in- 
formation, and  request  that  it  may  be  transmitted  to  him  by 
the  first  safe  opportunity  which  presents  itself,  or  retained 
by  you  for  delivery,  according  as  the  state  of  your  informa- 
tion may  suggest.  I  am  sir,  etc., 

James  Buchanan. 

Absolutely  innocent  appear  these  two  letters.  Yet 
properly  interpreted  they  tell  an  odd  story.  If  anything 
is  essential  to  General  Fremont's  view,  as  his  memory 
still  frames  it  for  him,  if  anything  is  essential  to  the 
traditional  conception  of  the  whole  affair,  it  is  that  the 
Benton  packet,  with  its  "  enigmatical "  letters,  was  a 
part  of  the  administration  plan,  was  an  officially  designed 
supplement  to  the  dispatch,  and  conveyed  to  the  captain 
the  wishes  of  the  same  government  that  commissioned 
Gillespie  to  carry  it.  Now  since  the  department  knew 
not  exactly  where  Captain  Fremont's  party  would  be 
when  Gillespie  should  reach  California,  it  would  be  es- 
sential to  the  success  of  any  plan  which  depended  on  the 
packet,  on  Gillespie's  official  dispatch,  on  Gillespie  him- 
self, and  on  Captain  Fremont,  all  at  once,  that  their  com* 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND   THE  BEAR  FLAG.    145 

bination  should  be  insured  by  the  simple  device  of  hav- 
ing the  same  messenger  carry  the  dispatch,  the  packet, 
and  the  letter  of  introduction  to  Captain  Fremont. 
Whatever  tends  to  separate  the  packet  from  Gillespie's 
mission,  tends  to  make  the  traditional  view  that  the 
"  enigmatical  "  letters  were  of  official  significance  more 
and  more  incredible. 

Now,  however,  mark  this :  On  October  17  the  de- 
partment had  commissioned  Gillespie  to  go  to  Larkin. 
For  on  that  day  the  Larkin  dispatch  is  dated,  both  in 
the  original  and  in  the  copy  in  the  Washington  archives, 
and  Gillespie  is  mentioned  in  the  dispatch.  Ten  days 
after  this,  Gillespie  still  not  having  set  out,  being  de- 
tained, as  it  would  seem,  by  the  non-departure  of  the 
vessel  that  was  to  carry  him  to  Vera  Cruz,  the  depart- 
ment has  a  packet  in  its  hands  for  Captain  Fremont, 
whose  name,  we  remember,  was  not  mentioned  at  all  in 
the  Larkin  dispatch.  This  packet  must  be  the  Benton 
packet.  The  circumstances  and  dates  make  this  as  cer- 
tain as  can  be  expected  in  such  a  matter.  Now,  how 
does  the  department  regard  this  packet  ?  As  an  impor- 
tant part  of  the  undertaking  wherein  Gillespie  is  already 
commissioned  to  act  ?  Nay,  not  so ;  for  it  decides  to 
forward  this  precious  packet,  with  all  its  "  enigmas," 
by  the  uncertain  means  of  the  ordinary  Mexican  mails, 
under  care  of  Consuls  Black  and  Larkin.  No  sign  is 
there  in  this  that  the  packet  is  of  official  importance. 
If  it  is,  why  is  not  Gillespie,  the  trusted  messenger  of 
the  secret  mission,  the  first  thought  of  the  secretary 
who,  ten  days  ago,  chose  him  for  the  work  ?  Why  risk 
an  essential  part  of  the  secret  mission  by  the  uncertain 
Mexican  mails,  when  the  expensive  confidential  agent, 
already  intrusted  with  the  fateful  business,  is  on  the 
10 


146  CALIFORNIA. 

point  of  departure  ?  Larkin  is  to  do  whatever  he  con- 
veniently can  to  deliver  the  packet,  "  as  the  state  of  his 
information  may  suggest."  But  Gillespie,  who  has  it, 
according  to  tradition,  as  his  main  task  to  seek,  to  arouse, 
and  to  cooperate  with  Captain  Fremont,  —  he  is  to  do 
nothing  at  all,  so  far,  with  the  precious  packet.  It  may 
reach  California  as  soon  as  he,  or  it  may  not.  It  may 
be  delivered,  or  it  may  be  kept  at  Monterey,  "  as  the 
state  "  of  Larkin's  information  may  suggest.  Six  days 
later,  November  3,  Gillespie  receives  his  non-committal 
letter  of  introduction  to  Captain  Fremont,  and  now,  in- 
deed, has  the  packet  handed  to  him  to  deliver.  Can  there 
be  a  better  proof  than  this  that  Gillespie's  mission  had 
originally  no  essential  connection  whatever  with  Captain 
Fremont,  and  that  his  momentous  meeting  with  the  lat- 
ter resulted  from  an  after-thought,  possibly,  of  course, 
through  Benton's  own  influence  exercised  at  the  office  ? 
"  We  have  commissioned  Larkin,"  the  department,  at 
any  rat«,  however  influenced,  must  have  said,  "  to  in- 
trigue for  us  in  California.  Now  we  have  this  private 
package  for  Captain  Fremont.  Why  not  let  Gillespie, 
as  a  part  of  his  duty,  hunt  up  the  captain  himself,  de- 
liver the  packet,  and  acquaint  him  with  the  intrigue  ? 
This  young  officer,  who  is  doubtless  on  friendly  terms 
with  the  Californians,  can  help  to  give  the  affair  a  show 
of  power,  by  being  present  to  support  the  seceding  Cal- 
ifornian  authorities  with  his  force,  to  render  in  fact  *  our 
kind  offices  as  a  sister  republic,'  in  case  California  de- 
clares its  independence,  or  to  offer  aid  against  any 
dreaded  British  invasion.  This  is  a  fortunate  comple- 
tion of  the  plan."  All  that  is  a  natural  interpretation 
of  what  Buchanan  and  the  government  may  have 
thought.      Absolutely  worthless,   however,   seems    any 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND   THE  BEAR  FLAG.     147 

interpretation  that  supposes  the  government  to  have 
first  determined  to  send  a  secret  agent  to  California  on 
vastly  important  business,  and  to  have  then  deliberately 
thought  of  sending  an  essential  part  of  his  secret  mission 
not  through  him,  but  through  the  expected  enemy's  own 
uncertain  mails.  And  there  is  no  known  evidence  that 
there  was  any  duplicate  of  Benton's  packet.  Plainiy 
the  stars  in  their  courses  now  war  against  the  traditional 
view  of  this  thing.  The  least  significant  document  that 
you  accidentally  find  bearing  on  the  matter  indicates 
the  same  as  the  greatest.  The  published  and  the  un- 
published disinterested  evidences  are  positively  all  of 
them  on  one  side. 

I  have  submitted  the  result  of  my  Washington  inves- 
tigation to  General  Fremont  in  a  long  letter,  and  in  a 
similarly  lengthy  second  interview.  I  tried  to  point  out, 
both  in  the  letter  and  in  the  interview,  as  well  as  I  could, 
the  difficulties  that  now  assailed  his  view  of  his  official 
mission.  Without  troubling  him  with  the  whole  mass  of 
evidence  brought  together  in  this  chapter,  I  still  tried 
to  make  clear  to  him  that,  unless  he  could  put  everything 
in  an  entirely  novel  light,  it  would  be  impossible  for  me 
to  defend  him  against  any  captious  critic  who  should 
put  aU  the  responsibility  of  his  hostile  action  in  Cal- 
ifornia upon  his  own  shoulders.  I  assured  him  of  my 
anxiety  to  do  him  justice  myself,  of  the  fact  that  his 
previous  demonstration  of  the  impossibility  of  Larkin's 
mission  would  now  make  his  case  harder  to  defend 
than  ever,  and  of  my  hearty  wish  that  his  courtesy  to 
me  should  not  finally  result  in  merely  increasing  the 
delicacy  of  his  position.  I  begged  him,  therefore,  to  let 
me  know  of  any  further  evidence,  and  if  possible  of  any 
documentary  evidence,  that  should  put  things  in  any 


148  CALIFORNIA. 

new  light.  In  reply,  General  Fremont  was  extremely 
patient  and  courteous,  but  lie  disclaimed  all  power  to 
unravel  the  mystery,  which  to  him  also,  as  he  asserts, 
is  now  mysterious.  He  knows,  he  insists,  only  what  he 
learned  of  the  wishes  of  the  government  through  Gil- 
lespie  and  the  "  family  cipher  "  letter.  What  else  the 
government  may  have  done  or  said,  what  other  instruc- 
tions it  may  have  given  to  its  other  servants,  —  for  that 
he  is  not  responsible.  He  did  his  duty,  as  he  still 
imagines,  and  no  doubt  other  people  did  theirs.  But 
to  him  it  is  still  entirely  a  novel  thing  that  Larkin 
should  have  had  any  important  part  in  all  this  business. 
He  never  heard  of  Larkin  in  so  prominent  a  place. 
He  feels  sure,  for  the  rest,  that  no  peaceful  intrigues 
could  have  won  the  Calif  or  nians.  All  his  information 
was  of  their  imminent  and  serious  hostility  ;  and  he 
knows  that  the  English  would  have  got  California  had 
he  not  acted  when  he  did.  The  government  may  have 
had  some  plan  including  Larkin  ;  but  then  this  plan 
must  have  been  concealed  from  Mr.  Benton,  who  cer- 
tainly never  knew  of  it,  and  never  could  have  advised 
such  an  unwise  scheme.  General  Fremont  meanwhile 
knows  that  his  instructions,  while  leaving  much  to  his 
discretion,  certainly  autliorized  such  force  as  he  used 
under  the  actual  conditions.  This  is  as  near  to  the 
whole  truth  as  he  personally  is  able  to  guide  me.  For 
other  facts  I  must  look  elsewhere,  and,  while  regarding 
my  efforts  with  the  most  courteous  mterest,  General 
Fremont  regrets  his  inability  to  give  me  further  help  in 
the  desired  direction. 

Such  is  General  Fremont's  present  memory  and  un- 
derstanding of  the  affair,  as  I  have  gathered  them  from 
him  ;  and  the  reader  will  certainly  join  with  me  in  ap- 


THE  SECRET  MISSION  AND   THE  BEAR  FLAG.     149 

predating  his  personal  good  humor  and  patience  in  fol- 
lowing so  long  as  he  did  my  wearisome  research.  If  I 
were  not  just  now  studying  an  important  historical 
problem,  whose  significance  is  enormously  greater  than 
the  interests  of  any  one  man,  I  should  be  glad  to  do 
General  Fremont  the  courtesy,  such  as  it  would  prove, 
of  my  silence.  For  the  rest  that  would  have  no  real  ef- 
fect, as  Mr.  H.  H.  Bancroft  has  access  already  to  the 
most  essential  document,  and  had  his  mind  made  up 
about  its  significance  long  before  I  ever  thought  of  the 
matter.  And  I  have  meanwhile  the  perfect  consolation 
of  knowing  that  the  personal  reputation  of  a  distinguished 
public  man  such  as  is  General  Fremont,  who  has  been 
a  household  name  in  our  nation  for  a  generation,  is 
quite  independent  for  good  as  well  as  for  evil  of  what  I 
may  happen  to  choose  to  write  here.  At  all  events,  I 
have  no  desire  to  judge  any  further  the  personal  charac- 
ter of  the  well-known  and  picturesque  pioneer  hero  of 
this  present  tale.  What  inner  motives  led  him  to  this 
rash  and  in  its  consequences  most  disastrous  act,  which 
once  for  all  did  whatever  one  agency  could  do  to  set 
over  against  each  other  in  deadly  enmity  the  Americans 
and  the  Californians,  it  is  not  mine  to  know.  The 
"  family  cipher  "  letter  doubtless  suggested  some  of  the 
motives.  But  if  the  deed  was  a  family  matter,  the  fam- 
ily is  always  and  everywhere  sacred,  and  especially  so 
when  it  is  engaged  in  making  a  plot.  What  we  desire 
to  know  is  not  the  inner  motive,  but  the  actual  histor- 
ical responsibility  for  this  first  fatal  scene  of  the  con- 
quest of  California  ;  and  we  have  found  out  very  clearly 
where  that  lies,  the  gallant  general's  clearest  memory 
and  sincerest  impressions  to  the  contrary  notwithstand- 
ing. 


150         ,  CALIFORNIA. 

One  thing  only  I  must  say  in  leaving  finally  the  field 
of  direct  personal  criticism,  namely,  that  save  for  the 
cause  of  liistorical  certainty  as  such  I  am  heartily  sorry 
to  have  troubled  General  Fremont's  courtesy  for  help 
about  this  matter.  For,  although  what  he  has  told  me 
makes  the  matter  clearer  by  cutting  off  all  hope  that  he 
has  yet  behind  some  entirely  new  official  revelation  to 
make,  that  would  plainly  put  the  responsibility  for  his 
action  elsewhere  than  on  his  own  shoulders  or  on  his 
father-in-law's,  still  this  remains  true  :  he  took  trouble 
to  help  me,  partly  for  the  sake,  I  suppose,  of  putting 
himself  in  a  fairer  light ;  whereas  what  he  has  told  me 
has  made  his  position  more  delicate  than  ever,  has  de- 
prived his  memory  of  all  its  possible  authority  as  a  wit- 
ness in  the  matter,  and  yet  meanwhile  has  made  his  act, 
as  such,  easier  to  judge  than  it  would  otherwise  be, 
since  every  possible  defense  seems  now  cut  off.  I  can- 
not suppress  this  fact,  although  I  frankly  regret  it.  I 
have  tried  in  every  way  to  do  General  Fremont  justice ; 
and  I  am  not  the  one  to  blame  if  the  result  is  unfavora- 
ble. After  all,  however,  I  cannot  forget  that  our  coun- 
try's honor  is  here  involved  much  more  than  the  per- 
sonal glory  of  any  one  man. 

We  must  turn  to  other  and  equally  characteristic 
scenes  of  our  early  life  in  the  land  that  we  were  now  to 
seize  upon. 


CHAPTER  III. 

FHE    CONQUEST    COMPLETED,    THE    INTERREGNUM,    AND 
THE   BIRTH    OF   THE   STATE. 

The  discerning  reader  lias  seen  in  the  foregoing 
something  more  than  a  study  of  individuals.  These  hos- 
tile undertakings  and  these  intrigues  are  as  characteris- 
tic as  they  were  fateful.  The  American  as  conqueror  is 
unwilling  to  appear  in  public  as  a  pure  aggressor ;  he 
dare  not  seize  a  California  as  Russia  has  seized  so  much 
land  in  Asia,  or  as  Napoleon,  with  full  French  approval, 
seized  whatever  he  wanted.  The  American  wants  to 
persuade  not  only  the  world,  but  himself,  that  he  is 
doing  God  service  in  a  peaceable  spirit,  even  when  he 
violently  takes  what  he  has  determined  to  get.  His 
conscience  is  sensitive,  and  hostile  aggression,  practiced 
against  any  but  Indians,  shocks  this  conscience,  unused 
as  it  is  to  such  scenes.  Therefore  Semple  and  Ide,  and 
the  cautious  secretary  of  state,  and  the  gallant  captain, 
and  the  venerable  senator,  all  alike,  not  only  as  indi- 
viduals, but  also  as  men  appealing  for  approval  to  their 
fellow-countrymen  at  large,  must  present  this  sinful  un- 
dertaking in  private  and  in  public  as  a  sad,  but  strictly 
moral,  humane,  patriotic,  enlightened,  and  glorious  un- 
dertaking. Other  peoples,  more  used  to  shedding  civ- 
ilized blood,  would  have  swallowed  the  interests  of  the 
people  of  twenty  such  Californias  as  that  of  1846,  with- 
out a  gasp.     The  agents  of  such  nations  would  have 


152  CALIFORNIA. 

played  at  filibustering  without  scruple,  if  they  had  been 
instructed  to  adopt  that  plan  as  the  most  simple  for  get- 
ting the  land  desired  ;  or  they  would  have  intrigued 
readily,  fearlessly,  and  again  without  scruple,  if  that  plan 
had  seemed  to  their  superiors  best  for  the  purpose.  But 
our  national  plans  had  to  be  formed  so  as  to  offend  our 
squeamish  natures  as  little  as  possible.  Our  national 
conscience,  however,  was  not  only  squeamish,  but  also, 
in  those  days,  not  a  little  hypocritical.  It  disliked, 
moreover,  to  have  the  left  hand  know  what  the  right 
hand  was  doing,  when  both  were  doing  mischief.  And 
so,  because  of  its  very  virtues,  it  involved  itself  in  dis- 
astrously complex  plots. 

I.     THE   CONQUERORS   AND   THEIR   CONSCIENCES. 

All  the  actors  concerned  worked,  namely,  in  the  fear 
of  this  strictly  virtuous,  of  this  almost  sanctimonious 
public  opinion,  —  a  public  opinion  that  was  at  the  same 
time,  both  in  the  North  and  in  the  South,  very  sensitive 
to  flattery,  very  ambitious  to  see  our  territory  grow 
bigger,  and  very  anxious  to  contemplate  a  glorious  na- 
tional destiny.  Moreover,  all  these  our  agents  not  only 
feared  the  public,  but  participated  themselves  in  the 
common  sentiments.  Hence  we  find  the  Polk  cabinet 
elaborately  considering,  not  merely  how  to  prosecute 
successfully  their  intended  aggressive  war,  just  as  the 
leaders  of  any  other  rapacious  nation  would  have  con- 
sidered such  a  matter,  but  also  how  to  put  their  war  into 
harmony  with  the  enlightened  American  spirit.  And, 
in  the  autumn  of  1845,  their  pious  plans  were  appar- 
ently well  formed.  To  Mexico  the  Slidell  mission 
should  be  sent,  with  its  offer  to  purchase  Ca'iifomia. 
This  would  be  a  liberal  offer,  and,  if  it  ever  became 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  153 

public,  would  set  us  right  as  a  powerful  and  generous 
nation  in  the  eyes  of  the  world,  while  it  would  give  us 
in  the  mean  time  a  chance  to  get  California  for  noth- 
ing, by  the  completion  of  our  intrigue  in  that  territory 
and  by  the  act  of  its  own  people.  The  beautiful  and 
business-like  compromise  thus  planned  would  set  at  one 
our  national  conscience  and  our  national  shrewdness ; 
it  would  be  not  only  magnanimous,  but  inexpensive.  Yet 
even  this  compromise  must  be  carefully  expressed  by 
the  honorable  secretary  of  state  in  such  language  as 
would  not  offend  the  sensitive  American  spirit,  in  case, 
by  some  accident,  the  whole  scheme  should  some  day  come 
plainly  to  light.  Larkin  must  be  instructed  that  we  had 
"  no  ambitious  aspirations  to  gratify,"  and  that  we  only 
desired  to  arouse  in  the  Californian  breast  "that  love 
of  liberty  and  independence  so  natural  to  the  American 
continent."  It  was  all  very  kindly,  this  desire,  and 
poor  Mexico  ought  to  have  been  thankful  for  such  a 
neighbor,  so  devoted  to  the  cause  of  freedom,  and  so 
generous  to  the  weak !  ^ 

But  this  combination  of  the  Slidell  mission  with  the 
Larkin  dispatch,  a  combination  whose  genuine  character 
has  not  hitherto  been  properly  understood  by  the  his- 
torians of  the  Mexican  War,^  was  not  more  character- 

1  What  light  the  Larkin  dispatch  throws  on  the  true  intent  of  the 
Slidell  mission  one  can  best  judge  b}'  comparing  just  here  Von  Hoist's 
interpretation  of  the  matter,  made  in  necessary  ignorance  of  the  true 
nature  of  the  Larkin  dispatch,  on  p.  113  and  p.  229  of  his  Constitii- 
tional  History,  vol.  iii.  (American  edition,  covering  the  period  from 
1846  to  1850).  For  Slidell's  instructions,  see  30th  Congr.,  1st  Sess. 
House  Ex.  Doc.  69,  vol.  viii.,  pp.  33,  sqq.  On  p.  41  of  these  instruc- 
tions is  a  significant  reference  to  the  Larkin  intrigue,  which,  now  that 
that  intrigue  is  known,  shows  clearly  the  connection  of  the  Slidell  and 
Zarkin  missions  in  the  minds  of  the  cabinet.  Slidell  is  to  counteract 
possible  foreign  schemes  for  getting  California,  and,  to  help  him  ia 


154  CALIFORNIA. 

istic  of  our  nation  than  was  the  combination  by  which 
the  pious  plan  was  defeated.  One  active  and  not  over- 
cautious young  .  agent,  who  had  good  reason  to  know 
the  importance  of  the  crisis,  and  who  was  not  alto- 
gether unwilling  to  turn  it  to  account  for  various  pri- 
vate ends,  was  in  California  just  then,  and  received  cer- 
tain advices  in  a  confidential  "  family  cipher ; "  and  these 
advices  somehow,  whether  wholly  by  his  own  fault  or 
also  by  the  fault  of  his  father-in-law,  led  him  to  thwart 
the  carefully  prepared  plans  of  the  government.  In 
acting  as  ho  did,  he  not  only  became  for  the  moment  a 
filibuster,  pure  and  simple,  but  he  endangered  our  whole 
scheme  by,  perhaps  unwittingly,  doing  his  best  to  drive 
California  directly  into  the  arms  of  England.  Either 
because  England  really  was  not  anxious  for  California 
just  then,  or  because  her  agents  in  the  Pacific  were  not 
sufficiently  on  the  alert,  this  result  was  averted,  yet  not 
in  consequence  of  the  gallant  captain's  undertaking, 
but  only  through  Sloat's  arrival  with  the  news  of  thos$ 
hostilities  on  the  Rio  Grande  which  superseded  all  pre- 
vious plots  and  pretenses,  and  which,  "  by  the  act  of 
Mexico,"  as  our  veracious  president  declared,  forced  us, 
unwilling,  conscientious,  and  humane  as  we  were,  into 
an  unequal  contest  with  a  physically  puny  foe. 

Meanwhile,  the  gallant  captain's  undertaking,  although 
a  plain  violation  of  his  orders,  was  itself  not  un-Ameri- 
can in  its  forms  and  methods,  at  least  in  so  far  as  they 
were  reported  to  the  public.  He  felt  himself,  after  all, 
to  be  a  peaceful  and  scientific  gentleman,  who  shunned 
war,  and  loved  the  study  of  nature.     He  was  a  type  of 

this  work,  he  is  to  have  a  copy  of  the  Larkin  dispatch  forwarded  himy 
and  is  to  correspond  freely  with  Larkin  upon  the  whole  subject,  tak- 
ing care  to  transmit  his  letters  secretly. 


OF 

^'^^^-^^^'t^^  conquest  completed.  155 

our  energy  and  of  our  mild  civilization,  in  the  presence 
of  crafty  and  wily  Spaniards,  who,  as  he  somehow  per- 
suaded either  himself  or  his  followers,  had  incited  the 
Indians  of  the  unknown  Klamath  wilderness  against 
him,  had  threatened  the  ripening  wheat-fields  of  his 
countrymen,  and  at  last  had  begun  marching  against 
his  own  party  with  an  armed  force.  This  armed  force, 
marching  against  him,  was  indeed  not  at  the  moment  to 
be  seen  in  the  whole  territory  by  any  human  eye ;  but 
its  asserted  existence  nevertheless  thenceforth  justified 
him  in  the  clearer  eyes  of  heaven  and  his  absent  fellow- 
countrymen.  So  at  least  he  himself  and  the  venerable 
senator  would  seem  in  all  sincerity  to  have  felt ;  and 
the  public,  by  the  nomination  of  the  young  hero  to  the 
presidency  in  1856,  and  by  the  large  vote  then  polled 
in  his  favor,  set  their  seal  of  approval  also  upon  the 
verdict  of  his  conscience.  And  both  he  himself  and 
the  public,  as  we  have  seen,  ever  afterwards  considered 
his  methods  of  procedure  to  have  been  as  noble  and  un- 
aggressive as  they  were  fearless  and  decisive ;  while  all 
concerned  thought  our  national  energy  and  kindliness 
finely  represented  by  the  acts  of  this  party  of  armed 
surveyors  and  trappers,  who  disturbed  the  peace  of  a 
quiet  land,  and  practiced  violence  against  inoffensive 
and  helpless  rancheros. 

But  when  hostilities  had  once  begun,  the  men  who 
were  not  in  the  state  secrets  were  as  American  and  as 
moral  as  those  who  were  initiated.  To  them  the  whole 
thing  appeared  partly  as  a  glorious  revolution,  a  des- 
tined joy  for  the  eyes  of  history-reading  posterity,  a 
high  and  holy  business  ;  and  partly  as  a  missionary 
enterprise,  destined  to  teach  our  beloved  and  erring 
Spanish-American  brethren  the  blessings  of  true  liberty. 


156  CALIFORNIA. 

The  Bear  Flag  heroes  interpreted  the  affair,  in  their 
way  also,  to  a  large  and  representative  American  public  ; 
and  these  heroes,  like  their  betters,  show  us  what  it  is  to 
have  a  national  conscience  sensitive  enough  to  call  loudly 
for  elaborate  and  eloquent  comfort  in  moments  of  doubt, 
and  just  stupid  enough  to  be  readily  deluded  by  mock- 
eloquent  cant.  The  result  of  the  whole  thing  is  that 
although,  in  later  years,  the  nation  at  large  has  indeed 
come  to  regard  the  Mexican  War  with  something  of  the 
shame  and  contempt  that  the  "  Biglow  Papers  "  and  the 
other  expressions  of  enlightened  contemporary  opinion 
heaped  upon  the  unworthy  business,  still,  in  writing  Cal- 
ifornia history,  few  have  even  yet  chosen  to  treat  the  acts 
of  the  conquest  with  the  deserved  plainness  of  speech, 
while,  in  those  days,  the  public  both  in  the  South  and 
in  the  whole  of  the  West,  together  with  a  considerable 
portion  of  the  public  elsewhere,  was  hoodwinked  by 
such  methods  as  were  used,  and  so  actually  supposed  our 
acquisition  of  the  new  territory  to  be  a  God-fearing  act, 
the  result  of  the  aggression  and  of  the  sinful  impotence 
of  our  Spanish  neighbors,  together  with  our  own  justifi- 
able energy,  and  our  devotion  to  the  cause  of  freedom. 
It  is  to  be  hoped  that  this  lesson,  showing  us  as  it  does 
how  much  of  conscience  and  even  of  j)ersonal  sincerity 
.  can  coexist  with  a  minimum  of  effective  morality  in  in- 
I  ternational  undertakings,  will  some  day  be  once  more 
remembered  ;  so  that  when  our  nation  is  another  time 
about  to  serve  the  devil,  it  will  do  so  with  more  frank- 
ness, and  will  deceive  itself  less  by  half -unconscious  cant. 
For  the  rest,  our  mission  in  the  cause  of  liberty  is  to  be 
accomplished  through  a  steadfast  devotion  to  the  culti- 
vation of  our  own  inner  life,  and  not  by  going  abroad 
as  missionaries,  as  conquerors,  or  as  marauders,  among 
weaker  peoples. 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  157 


n.     SLOAT,   THE    LARKIN    INTRIGUE,   AND   THE    ENGLISH 
LEGEND. 

But  with  July  7,  1846,  the  conquest  proper  is  only- 
begun.  Sloat,  who  had  arrived  from  Mazatlan  on  July 
1,  naturally  hesitated  at  Monterey  when  he  heard  of  the 
confusion  produced  by  the  gallant  captain  in  the  north. 
He  could  not  understand  this.  He  had  been  led  to  ex- 
pect a  peaceful  California,  whose  ports  he  was  to  seize 
as  Mexican  property,  but  whose  inhabitants  he  was,  if 
possible,  to  conciliate.  He  heard,  as  Larkin  says/  "  for 
several  days  nothing  but  distracting  reports  of  foreign- 
ers and  Calif ornians  collecting  people  and  preparing  to 
fight."  Sloat  seems  to  have  been  unwilHng  to  commit 
his  government  to  the  direct  support  of  what  naturally 
at  the  very  first  sight  appeared,  as  he  heard  of  it,  to  be 
an  irregular  insurrection.  As  he  had  been  instructed 
to  get  into  peaceful  relations  with  the  Californian  gov- 
ernment, and  so  to  detach  the  country  from  Mexico  with- 
out a  collision,  he  doubted,  apparently,  whether  his  in- 
structions, so  far  as  received,  authorized  him  to  do  what 
would  now  almost  certainly  involve  an  armed  struggle 
with  an  angry  people.  The  relation  of  Captain  Fre- 
mont to  the  whole  affair  was  of  course  to  Sloat,  as  to 
Larkin,  still  an  inexplicable  mystery.  Sloat  was  of  a 
very  vacillating  temperament,  and  the  situation  involved 
more  than  he  could  for  the  moment  meet  with  confidence 
and  firmness.  But  at  length  he  was  persuaded,  by  more 
voices,  it  is  said,  than  one,  and  certainly  by  numerous 
motives,  that  he  must  raise  the  flag.^     He  was  under- 

1  In  Larkin's  own  letter  to  Buchanan  of  July  18,  1846,  contained  in 
eopy  in  the  Bancroft-Larkin  papers,  and  known  to  me  also  in  the  offi- 
cial cop3'  furnished  by  the  State  Department. 

2  Larkin  {loc  cit.)  expresses  the  matter  thus:  ''In  this  state  of  af- 


158  CALIFORNIA. 

stood  by  Captain  Fremont  and  Lieutenant  Gillespie,  ac- 
cording to  their  Claims  Committee  testimony,  to  declare, 
when  he  soon  after  met  them,  that  he  had  raised  the 
flag  "  on  the  faith  of  "  the  doings  in  the  north  ;  that  is, 
so  soon  as  he  was  convinced  that  Captam  Fremont  was 
really  concerned  in  the  matter.  He  expressed,  they  tell 
us,  great  disappointment  when  the  captain  refused  to 
name  his  authority.  For,  as  they  want  us  to  understand 
him,  he  had  felt  sure  that  Captain  Fremont  must  have 
some  official  sanction  for  the  Bear  Flag  doings,  and 
that  it  would  be  well  to  support  him.  But,  while  I  do 
not  pretend  to  be  able  altogether  to  unravel  Sloat's  much- 
perplexed  mind  in  those  days,  the  reader  will  probably 
share  with  me  no  small  hesitation,  under  the  circum- 
stances, when  he  is  asked  to  suppose  this  now  traditional 
account  of  Sloat's  motives,  as  interpreted  by  Captain 
Fremont,  to  be  a  complete  one.  For  Larkin,  who  was 
much  with  Sloat  at  the  time  of  the  raising  of  the  flag, 
does  not  so  understand  the  matter,  as  we  see  by  his  let- 
ter just  cited  ;  and  there  are  obvious  reasons  for  thinking 
Larkin,  who  carefully  obeyed  his  own  orders  as  he  re- 
ceived them,  a  fairer  witness  on  the  points  at  issue  than 
the  gallant  captain,  who,  having  disobeyed  his  orders, 
was  now  deeply  interested  in  believing  that  his  disobedi- 
ence had  been  both  helpful  and  inevitable.  To  be  sure, 
the  raising  of  the  Bear  Flag,  while  it  very  seriously  per- 
plexed Sloat,  and  so  hindered  his  action,  did  before 
July  7  furnish  of  itself  a  motive  to  overcome  his  hesita- 
tion. But  this  motive  was  not  the  one  that  Captain 
Fremont  understood  Sloat  to  express.     The  motive  ob- 

fairs,  and  the  knowledge  of  the  Bear  Flag  having  been  hoisted,  fear- 
ing perhaps  that  some  other  foreign  officer  might  do  it,  he  hoisted  th« 
United  States  flag  in  this  town." 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  159 

viously  was  that,  by  violence  or  not  by  violence,  immedi- 
ate action  was  now  needed  to  save  the  distracted  land 
from  anarchy,  and  from  seizure  by  any  foreign  power 
that  might  choose  to  regard  interference  at  such  a  mo- 
ment as  humane.  No  one,  however,  can  understand 
Sloat's  hesitation  or  his  final  decision  who  thinks  of 
him  as  coming  to  California  with  the  intent  to  make 
war  on  the  inhabitants.  As  we  have  seen,  he  had  no 
such  intent ;  and  hence  the  operations  of  the  gallant 
captain  in  the  north  cannot  have  been  operations  on 
whose  "  faith "  he  would  be  ready  to  act,  since  they 
were  utterly  opposed  to  his  purposes  and  to  his  instruc- 
tions. He  came,  on-the  news  of  hostility  with  Mexico, 
to  "  encourage  "  its  inhabitants  "  to  adopt  a  course  of 
neutrality."  Such  were  his  already  cited  instructions 
of  June  24,  1845.  To  exceed  these  instructions  by  de- 
liberately beginning  an  open  struggle  with  the  people, 
he  did  not  desire,  and  hence  he  hesitated  when  he  found 
such  a  state  of  affairs  as  seemed  to  necessitate  a  struggle 
in  case  he  interfered.  When  at  last  he  saw  that  he 
must  seize  the  country  to  escape  yet  worse  troubles,  he 
tried  with  almost  pathetic  earnestness  to  come  to  an  un- 
derstanding with  Castro  and  with  Pio  Pico,  in  order,  as 
he  quite  sincerely  said,  to  "  avert  the  sacrifice  of  human 
life  and  the  horrors  of  war."  He  invited  both  chiefs  to 
a  council  at  Monterey ;  he  assured  them  both  that  he 
came  as  the  "  best  friend  of  California ;  "  and  his  lan- 
guage to  them  was  in  strict  and  undoubtedly  sincere  con^- 
pliance  with  his  instructions.  To  a  hostile  governor, 
whom  one  purposes  violently  to  overthrow,  one  does  not 
write  as  Sloat  did  to  Pico,  in  the  tone  of  one  rendering 
account,  as  it  were,  to  a  person  who  is  to  be  conciliated  : 
"  I  assure  your  excellency  that  not  the  least  impropriety 


160  CALIFORNIA. 

has  been  committed  [by  the  Americans  at  Monterey], 
and  that  the  business  and  social  intercourse  of  the  town 
have  not  been  disturbed  in  the  slightest  degree."  Such 
a  spirit  and  such  conduct  could  not  have  been  inspired 
by  "  the  faith  of  "  Captain  Fremont's  doings.  As  for 
Sloat's  relation  after  July  7  to  Captain  Fremont,  the 
friends  of  the  latter,  not  without  their  usual  audacity, 
tried  to  show  before  the  Claims  Committee,  by  a  singu- 
lar misuse  of  documents,  that  Sloat  was  as  anxious  as  he 
really  was  to  get  Captain  Fremont's  cooperation  only  be- 
cause Sloat  sought  in  the  captain's  supposed  private  of- 
ficial authority  a  guaranty  of  the  propriety  of  his  own 
course  in  raising  the  flag  at  Monterey.  Now  Sloat  was 
a  morally  timid  man ;  but  the  published  documents 
show  clearly  enough  that  he,  whose  instructions  were  to 
avoid  a  collision,  was  not  living  in  the  hope  of  any  reas- 
surance from  the  gallant  captain  who  had  brought  on  a 
collision,  but  was  hoping  so  to  get  control  of  the  latter 
as  "to  stop  the  sacrifice  of  human  life  in  the  north." 
For  this  reason  he  was  indeed  glad  to  get  the  cooperar 
tion  of  the  captain  at  once,  and  he  used  every  effort  to 
that  end.^     Thus  here,  as  through    all  the  subsequent 

1  The  proof  here  is  clear,  (1)  in  that,  as  just  pointed  out,  Sloat  did 
not  want  a  fight  with  the  Californians,  and  so  could  not  have  been 
seeking  for  a  warrant  for  his  relatively  peaceful  undertaking  in  the 
violence  of  the  captain;  and  (2)  in  that  in  his  letter  to  Pico,  July  12, 
1846  (a  letter  which  clearly  shows  that  he  still  hoped  for  peaceful 
submission  from  the  Californians,  and  was  anxious  to  get  it  through 
the  most  friendly  advances),  Sloat  promises  to  Pico  to  do  his  own  best 
to  quiet  the  troubles  in  the  north.  For  the  rest,  all  the  other  relevant 
documents  collected  in  Sen.  Ex.  Docs.  1  and  19,  2d  Sess.  29  Congr.,if 
taken  together,  plainly  show  the  true  reason  of  Sloat's  haste  to  get 
word  of  Captain  Fremont.  This  reason  is  as  plainly  not  the  one  some- 
what vaingloriously  assumed  by  the  latter  in  his  own  account  of  the 
matter.  Captain  Fremont  was  to  the  commodore  first  of  all  a  very 
disturbing  force,  which  he  indeed  hoped  to  convert  very  soon  into  a 
useful  force. 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  161 

months,  Captain  Fremont's  conduct  in  the  north  re- 
mained effective  as  a  serious  hindrance  in  the  way  of 
the  true  conquest  of  California.  It  delayed  the  raising 
of  the  flag  a  full  week  after  Sloat's  arrival  by  making 
him  uncertain  how  to  apply  his  instructions  to  the  anom- 
alous conditions  ;  and  when  Sloat  had  begun  to  act,  the 
greatest  obstacle  to  his  work  lay  in  the  results  already 
produced  by  the  gallant  marauders  at  Sonoma.  I  know 
not  how  much  Sloat,  who  was  in  communication  with 
Larkin,  ever  came  to  know  of  the  true  nature  of  the  offi- 
cial intrigue,  which  the  latter,  so  far  as  I  know,  thence- 
forth very  faithfully  kept  secret,  but  both  Sloat  and 
Larkin  must  have  shared  to  some  extent  the  knowledge 
of  what  at  that  moment  had  been  lost  by  the  folly  of 
the  Bear  Flag  movement ;  for  this  knowledge  concerned 
matters  that  were  in  part;  at  least,  no  secret  to  many 
well-informed  people  at  Monterey  and  elsewhere. 

For  Larkin,  the  man  who,  of  all  Americans  con- 
cerned with  California  during  that  crisis,  best  did  his 
duty ;  tiie  one  official  whose  credit,  both  private  and 
public,  is  unstained  by  the  whole  affair ;  and  who  per- 
sonally, if  desert  be  considered,  and  not  mere  popular- 
ity, is  every  way  by  far  the  foremost  among  the  men 
who  won  for  us  California,  — ^  Larkin  had  not  been  idle, 
not  before  Gillespie  came,  and  much  less  afterwards. 
He  had  obeyed  his  orders.  If  he  was  no  trained  official 
and  no  cultivated  man,  he  was  at  least  a  faithful  patriot, 
a  shrewd  man  of  business,  and  a  cautious  servant  of  his 
government  ;  a  man  well  acquainted  with  the  place,  the 
people,  and  the  methods  of  work  that  must  be  employed. 
As  an  intriguer,  he  was  distinctly  successful,  and  no 
drop  of  blood  need  have  been  shed  in  the  conquest  of 
California,  no  flavor  of  the  bitterness  of  mutual  hate 
11 


162  CALIFORNIA. 

need  have  entered,  at  least  for  that  moment,  into  the 
lives  of  the  two  peoples  who  were  now  jointly  to  occupy 
the  land,  had  Larkin  been  left  to  complete  his  task. 
And  although  Sloat's  coming  would  indeed  have  found 
the  work  still  incomplete,  it  would,  without  the  captain's 
utterly  mischievous  doings,  have  been  well  enough  ad- 
vanced to  insure  with  almost  perfect  certainty  the 
peaceful  change  of  flags. 

For  see  what  had  been  done  already.  In  the  short 
period  of  less  than  two  months,  before  the  beginning  of 
the  Bear  Flag  absurdities  and  after  Gillespie's  coming, 
Larkin  had  so  far  developed  his  intrigue  as  to  have,  first 
of  all,  the  direct  assurance  of  Castro's  own  aid  in  a  plan 
to  declare  the  country  independent  of  Mexico  "in  1847 
or  1848."  ^  "  Some,"  says  Larkin,  "  may  have  no  faith 
in  assertions  of  this  kind  from  these  people.  The  un- 
dersigned does.  From  twelve  years'  experience  he  be- 
lieves he  knows  them."  And  his  knowledge  of  what 
a  Californian's  promise  meant  was,  after  all,  the  knowl- 
edge of  a  shrewd  Yankee  trader,  to  whom  Californians 
for  these  twelve  years  had  been  owing  numerous  debts, 
and  making,  of  course,  numerous  promises.  And  so  his 
opinion  is  worth  more  in  these  matters  than  even  the 
opinion  of  the  captain  of  the  transient  surveying  par- 
ties of  1844  and  1846.  But  this  was  only  the  begin- 
ning. The  same  intrigue  had  been  cautiously  suggested 
to  leading  men  all  over  the  country.  The  very  fact  that 
they  themselves,  in  later  times,  never  publicly  confessed 
this  shows  that  the  intrigue  was,  as  far  as  it  had  time 
to  develop  itself,  relatively  effective.  Had  they  re- 
jected Larkin's  scheme  at  once,  they  would  have  been 

1  See  Larkin's  letter  to  Buchanan,  July  20,  1846:  B.MS,  and  State 
Department  Archives. 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  163 

free  to  avow  their  knowledge  of  it,  both  then  and  later. 
But,  after  they  once  had  entertained  the  notion,  the  dis- 
grace that  was  inflicted  upon  them,  when  they  later 
found  themselves  betrayed,  through  what  Castro  himself 
called  "  the  despicable  policy  of  the  agents  of  the  United 
States  in  this  Department,"  sealed  their  lips  as  to  the 
plot  that  had  at  first  seemed  to  them  a  generous  offer 
from  a  "  sister  republic,"  but  that,  after  the  gallant  cap- 
tain's undertaking,  could  be  remembered  by  them  only 
as  the  foul  treachery  of  an  heretical  nation  of  tyrants 
and  robbers. 

The  intrigue  had,  however,  reached  a  yet  higher 
stage.  In  his  letter  of  June  1,  written  before  the  out- 
break at  Sonoma  (and  cited,  also,  in  the  previous  chap- 
ter), Larkin  says  :  "  From  a  dread  of  something,  they 
hardly  know  what,  and  to  devise  some  means  to  reinstate 
the  deplorable  condition  of  affairs  of  this  country,  the 
towns,  by  order  of  Governor  Pico  and  the  assembly,  on 
the  30th  ultimo  elected  eighteen  members,  who,  with 
the  seven  members  of  the  assembly  and  five  military 
officers,  are  to  convene  in  the  town  of  Santa  Barbara 
on  the  15th  instant.^  Four  members  are  chosen  for 
Monterey.  There  are  many  opinions  on  what  ought  or 
in  fact  what  can  be  brought  forward  for  this  meeting  to 
act  on.  Some  wish  to  call  on  some  foreign  nation  for 
protection  ;  others  wish  to  declare  themselves  independ- 
ent." 

Larkin  then  goes  on  to  say  that  he    is  actively  in- 

1  This  proposed  assembly  appears  in  the  Claims  Committee  Report 
as  an  important  and  altogether  hostile  junta,  whose  purpose  was 
solely  to  turn  the  country  over  to  England,  and  whose  nefarious 
schemes  shall  have  been  thwarted  by  the  gallant  captain.  In  fact, 
this  junta  never  met,  and  its  purposes  were  certainly  not  definite  in 
any  direction. 


164  CALIFORNIA. 

triguing  with  the  delegates  to  get  the  junta  to  prepare 
a  memorial  to  the  central  government,  setting  forth  the 
grievances  of  the  Department,  and  so  preparing  the  way 
for  a  later  declaration  of  independence.  His  reason  for 
advancing  no  further  at  the  moment  in  his  propositions 
to  the  delegates  is  the  resistance  that  he  meets  from  the 
patriotism  of  some  people,  to  whom  the  idea  of  independ- 
ence seems  a  doubtful  and  dangerous  one.  For  an 
English  intrigue  he  is  on  the  watch,  and  of  course,  as 
we  see,  he  has  his  proper  fears  of  England  ;  but  he  also 
has  good  reasons,  at  this  moment,  reasons  which  he 
gives  at  length,  for  regarding  the  English  plans  as  not 
now  imminently  dangerous,  in  case  the  country  remains 
quiet.  Forbes,  the  English  consul,  is,  namely,  in  his 
private  capacity,  a  man  having  settled  interests  in  the 
land  an(^  business  connections  with  Americans,  and, 
as  such,  he  is  desirous  of  a  quick  and  permanent  settle- 
ment of  all  doubts  about  the  country's  future.  He  is 
not  anxious,  therefore,  in  this  private  capacity,  for  any 
but  an  American  occupation  of  the  country.  Whatever 
his  official  instructions  may  be,  he  is  consequently  not 
apt  to  be  very  zealous  in  the  English  cause.  Thus,  in 
view  of  the  whole  situation,  Larkin  feels  sanguine  of 
success  within  a  year  or  two,  and  with  the  cordial  con- 
sent of  the  people  of  the  country. 

All  such  intrigues  as  Larkin's  are,  in  their  very  na- 
ture, matters  of  no  mathematical  surety.  In  view  of 
the  whole  situation,  however,  so  far  as  I  can  appre- 
ciate it,  there  seems  no  serious  reason  to  doubt  Larkin's 
judgment.  There  is  simply  no  evidence,  as  we  shall 
soon  see,  that  the  English  desire  for  California  had 
ripened  at  that  moment  into  any  plan  capable  of  resist- 
ing the  course  of  events  that  was  now  steadily  leading 


THE   CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  165 

California  away  from  Mexico,  and  into  our  own  posses- 
sion. Had  the  Mexican  War  been  postponed  a  few 
months  or  a  year,  and  had  the  gallant  captain  not  ap- 
peared on  the  ground  in  the  north,  California  would 
have  been  ready  to  drop  into  our  basket  like  a  mellow 
apple.  And,  without  the  gallant  captain,  even  the  coin- 
ing of  the  Mexican  War,  at  the  time  when  it  came,  would 
have  been,  in  all  probability,  no  source  of  serious  trou- 
ble to  our  plans.  The  Larkin  intrigue  would  have  been 
prematurely  closed,  indeed,  but  not  with  bloodshed. 

When  I  say  this,  however,  I  am  venturing  to  treat  with 
conscious  contempt  two  of  the  best  known  and  best  be- 
lieved of  the  popular  legends  of  the  conquest.  One  of 
these  legends  is  that  the  "  Macnamara  scheme  "  was 
nearly  ripe,  and  that,  without  the  gallant  captain's  de- 
cisive interference,  this  scheme  would  have  lost  to  us 
much,  if  not  the  whole,  of  California.  Macnamara  was, 
in  fact,  an  Irish  priest,  who  had  evidently  taken  very  ar- 
dent part  in  the  then  familiar  and  manifold  schemes  for 
relieving  the  burden  of  Ireland's  distress  by  colonization. 
The  magnitude  of  such  schemes  anybody  can  see  by  ref- 
erence to  the  English  Parliamentary  Papers  of  that  time, 
and  Macnamara's  scheme  is  plainly  to  be  judged  as  one 
of  the  number.  His  plan  was  to  put  several  thousand 
Irish  families  into  the  San  Joaquin  Valley  ;  and  the 
English  government,  very  surely  with  an  ardent  desire 
to  get  rid  of  some  thousands  of  Irish  families,  and  prob- 
ably also  not  without  a  willingness  to  do  its  part  in  a 
very  safe  way  towards  the  introduction  of  British  sub- 
jects into  California,  in  view  of  future  possibilities  there, 
helped  him  so  far  as  to  give  him  transportation  in  one 
of  the  vessels  of  the  English  squadron  while  he  was  en- 
gaged upon  his  business  of  trying  to  get  a  gi'eat  land- 


166  CALIFORNIA. 

grant.  In  Mexico  itself  he  met  with  some  opposition  ,* 
it  was  very  plainly  pointed  out  to  him  by  at  least  one 
person  that  while  he  pretended  to  be  anxious  to  save 
California  for  Mexico  and  from  heretical  American  in- 
fluence, he  would  in  fact  only  insure  the  transfer  of  Cal- 
ifornia to  America  if  he  introduced  there  numbers  of 
Irish  peasants,  who,  though  Catholic,  would  surely  gravi- 
tate to  the  United  States  rather  than  to  Mexico.  This 
was,  for  the  rest,  so  plain  in  itself,  that,  if  Macnamara 
had  really  been  a  chosen  agent,  working  with  a  desire  to 
secure  California  for  England  by  a  process  of  coloniza- 
tion, neither  he  nor  his  superiors  could  have  failed  to  ob- 
serve the  fact  so  pointed  out.  To  use  Irish  colonists  as  a 
barrier  against  American  aggression  would  be  a  scheme 
that  no  English  government  would  coolly  resort  to,  if 
engaged  in  immediate  and  earnest  efforts  to  secure  Cal- 
ifornia for  England  herself.  Any  British  subject  in 
CaHfornia  might  possibly,  of  course,  be  the  cause  of  com- 
plications that  would  end  in  the  transfer  of  the  country 
to  England.  But  it  is  plain  also  that  neither  Macna- 
mara nor  his  English  patrons  could  have  had  such  re- 
mote contingencies  in  mind  as  their  main  object.  What 
they  first  and  most  wanted  was  to  find  a  place  to  settle 
poor  Irish  families,  in  order  to  help  relieve  the  pressure 
of  Irish  famine.  And  such  a  place  seemed  to  be  offered 
to  them  in  California,  in  case  they  could  obtain  favor 
with  the  central  government  of  Mexico  and  with  that  of 
the  Department  itself.  With  the  particular  fortunes  of 
the  Macnamara  scheme  we  have  little  to  do.  It  is  suffi- 
cient for  our  purpose  to  note  that  the  plan  of  getting  the 
grant  sought  was  incomplete  at  the  moment  of  the  con- 
quest, and  would  have  been  so  even  had  the  gallant  cap- 
tain never  seen  CaUfornia,  a  fact  that  appears  only  the 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  167 

more  plainly  from  his  own  testimony  before  the  Claims 
Committee.  For  therein  he  says  that  the  movement  of 
Governor  Pio  Pico  in  the  Macnamara  matter  in  the 
month  of  July  was  probably  determined,  or  hastened, 
by  his  own  assault  in  the  north.  In  other  words,  had 
there  been  an  imminent  danger  to  American  interests 
from  Macnamara,  the  gallant  captain  himself  would 
have  been  the  one  who  did  all  that  was  possible  on  his 
part  to  increase  the  danger  and  to  hasten  its  consumma- 
tion. There  was,  however,  no  such  serious  danger,^  be- 
cause the  Macnamara  grant  would  have  had  yet  more 
ordeals  to  go  through  before  it  could  have  been  effective. 
It  was  a  scheme  of  altogether  unprecedented  and  irreg- 
ular character  in  California,  and  as  such  could  not  have 
worked  quickly. 

The  other  popular  legend  makes  the  danger  from 
England  yet  more  pressing,  by  declaring :  first,  that 
Sloat  was  watched  (as  he  undoubtedly  was),  at  Mazat- 
lan,  by  Admiral  Seymour,  who  with  the  CoUingwood  is 
known  to  have  followed  Sloat  to  Monterey,  reaching  that 
place  a  few  days  after  the  raising  of  the  flag  ;  second, 
that  Seymour  had  orders  to  put  California  under  Eng- 
lish protection,  so  soon  as  hostilities  should  begin  be- 
tween the  United  States  and  Mexico  ;  third,  that,  in 
pursuance  of  these  orders,  he  raced  with  Sloat  to  Mon- 
terey, arriving  too  late  by  reason  of  Sloat's  skill  in  elud- 
ing him  ;  and,  finally,  that,  if  he  had  reached  Monterey 
in  time,  or  if  Sloat  had  hesitated  longer,  Seymour  would 
have  seized  California,  and  would  have  established  an 
English  protectorate  over  the  country.  This  story  has 
1  Senor  Coronel  (a  native  of  respectable  position,  both  at  that  time 
and  since,  and  good  authority  on  these  matters),  says  in  his  state- 
ment, B.  MS.,  that  the  scheme  encountered  great  popular  opposition 
from  Califoruians  in  the  south. 


168  CALIFORNIA. 

always  been  somewhat  thoughtlessly  repeated  by  Gen- 
eral Fremont's  friends,  although,  if  it  were  true,  it 
would  of  itself  give  us  yet  another  and  a  direct  condem- 
nation of  his  violent  efforts  to  harass  and  overthrow 
the  existing  Californian  government  by  a  course  which, 
unless  supported  by  the  purest  luck,  would  have  only 
served  to  drive  California  into  the  arms  of  the  coming 
English  force,  instead  of  preparing  California  to  resist 
the  English.  But  the  story  is  almost  certainly  a  mere 
legend.  And  this  I  say  after  a  most  careful  effort  to 
understand  the  accessible  evidence,  and  especially  the 
evidence  upon  which  the  legend  most  relies.  The  whole 
thing  is  most  probably  a  fine  instance  of  the  capacity  of 
the  public  to  be  fooled  by  whatever  has  an  air  of  mys- 
tery and  of  deep  significance.  Seymour  Trvay  have  had 
such  instructions,  but  if  he  did  we  have  no  good  evi- 
dence of  the  fact. 

The  evidence  given  for  the  legend  is  as  follows  : 
First,  in  general,  England  is  known  to  have  been  jeal- 
ous at  that  time  of  our  "  manifest  destiny  "  on  the  Pa- 
cific, and  to  have  been  unwilling  to  see  us  get  California. 
And  so  far  there  is  indeed  no  doubt  about  the  matter. 
English  travelers'  books,  English  magazines,  and  Eng- 
lish newspapers  of  that  day  express  this  feeling.  But, 
in  just  the  same  sense,  England  was  unwilling  to  see  us 
get  Oregon ;  and  yet,  just  at  that  very  moment,  Eng- 
land was  deliberately,  if  unwillingly,  yielding  to  us  more 
than  she  had  originally  meant  to  yield  in  Oregon.  Un- 
willingly, we  say,  England  did  this,  but  did  so  because 
Oregon  was  not  considered  to  he  worth  a  war.  Even 
so,  however,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  California  also 
was  not  then  thought  by  England  to  be  worth  a  war. 
Yet  to  order  the  seizure  of  California,  even  while  the 


THE   CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  169 

Oregon  negotiations  were  pending  and  while  the  rela- 
tions of  America  and  England  were  strained,  would 
have  been,  in  view  of  our  known  determinations  and 
ambitions,  merely  to  insure  a  war.  If  England,  how- 
ever, was  willing  to  fight  for  California,  why  did  she 
not  fight,  especially  when  her  force  then  present  in  the 
Pacific  was  already,  as  is  usually  admitted,  fairly  able 
to  cope  with  ours?  But  these  general  considerations 
are,  by  themselves  indeed,  far  too  vague.  We  can  only 
say  from  them  that  either  the  English  government  must 
have  ordered  Seymour  to  get  California  by  violence  if 
necessary  (but  then  he  would  have  used  violence)  ;  or 
else  his  orders  cannot  have  gone  much  farther  than  a 
direction  to  use  his  discretion  in  accepting  a  proposition 
from  the  Calif ornians  themselves  to  take  them  under 
his  protection.  But,  in  the  latter  case,  he  "raced,"  if 
he  did  race,  with  Sloat,  not  to  raise  his  own  flag  at  once, 
but  to  watch  events,  and  to  accept,  as  he  did,  the  inev- 
itable results  of  the  American  action,  in  case  it  should 
be  decisive,  and  should  not  be  preceded  by  a  request 
from  the  Californians  for  his  protection.  For  the  rest, 
where  has  any  one  ever  found  or  produced  the  evidence 
of  any  sort  of  agreement  between  England  and  Mexico, 
looking  towards  an  alliance  or  towards  a  protectorate, 
in  the  event  of  a  war  between  Mexico  and  ourselves  ? 

In  the  second  place,  however,  the  legend  knows  that 
Seymour  himself  confessed  to  American  naval  officers, 
in  friendly  conversation,  and  while  his  own  vessel  lay 
in  Monterey  Bay,  just  after  the  raising  of  our  flag,  that, 
had  he  come  first,  his  flag  would  have  been  flying  over 
the  fort  in  place  of  ours.  The  officers  to  whom  Sey- 
mour said  this  usually  speak  to  us  through  third  per- 
sons.    Who  they  were  the  legend  generally  says  not, 


170  CALIFORNIA. 

unless  it  avers,  as  it  sometimes  does,  that  Sloat  was  one 
of  them.  That  Seymour  may  have  said  anything  one 
pleases,  in  harmless  jest,  after  dinner,  or  at  some  other 
social  meeting,  and  that  American  officers,  and  even 
Sloat  himself,  may  have  been  very  ready  to  misinter- 
pret his  jest  to  the  credit  of  their  own  exploits,  is  indu- 
bitable ;  but  that  he  actually,  and  in  any  earnest  speech, 
revealed  his  instructions  about  so  delicate  a  matter,  is 
rank  nonsense.  He,  of  course,  did  nothing  of  the  sort. 
Even  if  he  did  speak  in  a  seemingly  earnest  tone,  we 
could  not  believe  him  about  a  matter  that  his  duty  as 
an  officer  would  have  forced  him  to  conceal.  His  in- 
structions, whatever  they  were,  have  never  been  re- 
vealed ;  but  in  Parliament,  in  a  conversation  held  in 
the  autumn  of  1846,  before  the  news  of  our  conquest 
had  reached  England,  Lord  Palmerston  used  language 
about  our  troubles  with  Mexico  that  was  utterly  incon- 
sistent with  the  existence  of  any  plan  such  as  would 
have  seemed  likely  to  embroil  England  and  our  own 
land  in  a  controversy  about  California.  If,  then,  there 
was  such  a  plan  existing,  and  if  Lord  Palmerston  knew 
of  instructions  to  Seymour  that  might  lead  to  a  quarrel 
with  us  concerning  California,  he  felt  bound  to  give  no 
hint  of  the  matter  to  Parliament.^  In  that  case,  how- 
ever, the  thing  was  strictly  confidential ;  but  then  Ad- 
miral Seymour  did  not  blurt  it  out  to  the  first  American 
officer  whom  he  met  in  a  social  gathering.  Or,  if  he 
pretended  to  do  so,  then  so  much  the  more  reason  for 
doubting  the  fact  that  he  pretended  to  confess. 

1  The  conversation  in  question  is  found  in  Hansard,  3d  Series,  vol. 
Ixxxviii.  p.  978.    The  substance  is  that  while  the  Oregon  difficulty 
was  pending  England  could  not  offer  mediation  between  Mexico  and 
ourselves;  while  now,  since  there  is  no  longer  fear  of  contest  or  frio  * 
tion  between  England  and  ourselves,  such  mediation  is  feasible. 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  171 

The  legend,  in  the  third  place,  appeals  to  the  concur* 
rent  impressions  and  testimony  of  all  the  American 
navy  men  on  the  coast  at  the  time,  from  Commodore 
Sloat  down  to  the  common  seamen.  All  alike  seem  to 
have  given  the  one  interpretation  to  Seymour's  pres- 
ence, —  an  interpretation  that  of  course  highly  flattered 
their  own  vanity.  They  all  felt  that  they  had  beaten 
the  whole  English  nation  without  striking  a  blow. 
They  certainly  had  done  this  in  so  far,  namely,  as  they 
had  taken  California  against  England's  openly  expressed 
desire  that  we  should  not  take  it.  But  that  England 
had  determined  to  do  more  than  to  look  with  disfavor 
upon  our  seizure  of  California,  Sloat  and  the  sailors 
could  only  guess,  even  in  case  it  was  true.  They  were 
not  in  the  state  secrets  of  England.  Who  were  they, 
that  they  should  know  what  Admiral  Seymour  was 
about  ?  Did  he  know  all  that  they  were  about  ?  And 
yet  their  gossip  has  been  the  infallible  guide  for  the 
legend  ever  since. 

But,  in  the  fourth  place,  the  legend  itself  more  di- 
rectly and  triumphantly  asks  :  What,  then,  was  Seymour 
doing,  if  not  racing  with  Sloat  for  California  ?  The 
one  answer  plainly  is  :  The  Oregon  matter  was  still,  so 
far  as  Seymour  and  the  rest  knew,  an  unsettled  matter. 
How  soon  the  two  nations  might  find  themselves  at  war, 
neither  of  the  commanders  could  at  the  moment  tell. 
It  was  plainly  Seymour's  duty  to  watch  Sloat  narrowly, 
to  know  where  he  was  and  what  he  did,  and  to  follow 
him,  moreover,  with  an  adequate  force.  Might  not 
Sloat's  movements,  for  all  Seymour  could  know,  have 
some  relation  to  Oregon  also  ?  And  if  the  Oregon  dif- 
ficulty should  lead  to  war,  then,  indeed,  Seymour  would 
be  bound  to  prevent  by  force  Sloat's  seizure  of  Califor- 


172  CALIFORNIA. 

nia  as  well  as  any  other  of  Sloat's  undertakings.  All 
this  he  must  have  had  in  mind,  and  this  suflSciently  ex- 
plains his  movements. 

And  so,  finally,  the  legend  has  to  fall  back  on  a  sort 
of  continuity  of  tradition,  and  has  to  assert  that  every- 
body has  always  somehow  known,  since  July,  1846,  that 
we  won  California  from  the  very  jaws  of  the  lion. 
Here  is  the  true  humor  of  the  tradition,  that,  in  the 
end,  it  is  only  an  expression  of  that  infallible  sense 
which  guides  all  our  American  frontiersmen  and  sail- 
ors, and  talkers  generally,  to  an  intuitive  and  accurate 
knowledge  of  the  details  of  English  foreign  policy.  If 
you  want  a  true  sense  of  what  our  neighbor  across  the 
water  thinks  and  means  and  is  and  does,  you  must  listen 
to  the  average  speculative  American  who  has  never  read 
an  English  journal.  He  feels  in  his  soul  the  wicked 
plans,  the  ambitious  and  oppressive  purposes,  of  that 
perfidious  old  tyrant  of  the  seas  so  fully  and  earnestly 
that,  given  such  a  fact  as  an  English  man-of-war  with 
an  admiral  on  board,  following  our  fleet  when  it  went 
to  seize  California,  he  can  at  once  read  all  that  England 
meant  and  ordered. 

As  for  me,  I  know  naught  of  the  instructions  of  Ad- 
miral Seymour  in  1846,  save  what  one  very  indirect 
piece  of  evidence  indicates,  in  a  purely  negative  way,  as 
to  the  plans  that  they  must  have  expressed.  This  one 
evidence  is  contained  in  the  remarks  of  Lord  Palmer- 
ston  just  cited.  This  is  the  single  important  objective 
fact  amongst  the  wreck  of  legendary  trash  about  the 
English  ofiicial  designs  upon  California  in  1846.  And 
what  this  evidence  indicates  I  have  already  suggested. 
I  think  it  quite  inconsistent  with  any  purpose  on  the 
part  of  the  English  government  to  risk  a  struggle  with 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  173 

US  for  the  sake  of  the  wildernesses  of  Cahfornia.  It  is 
not  indeed  as  if  Lord  PalmervSton  had  announced  directly 
whether  he  had  or  whether  his  predecessors  had  had 
designs  on  California.  A  direct  mention  of  California 
he  evaded.  His  remarks  are  important,  however,  since 
while  he  does  not  mention  California  at  all,  he  does 
distinctly  mention  and  promise  a  course  of  public  action 
concerning  Mexico  and  ourselves  that  would  have  been 
absurd  and  impossible  if  he  had  abeady  determined  (or 
if  his  very  recent  predecessors,  who  must  have  instructed 
Seymour,  had  determined,  in  such  a  way  as  now  to  bind 
his  conduct)  that  California  should  be  seized  at  the  risk 
of  a  conflict  with  us,  and  in  the  face  of  our  own  open 
armed  preparations  to  take  the  territory  upon  the  out- 
break' of  a  war  with  Mexico,  this  war  itself  being  just 
as  openly  a  part  of  our  programme. 

This,  I  say,  is  all  that  I  know  of  relevant  evidence 
bearing  upon  the  instructions  of  Admiral  Seymour- 
Whatever  they  were,  it  is  very  improbable,  therefore, 
that  they  resembled  those  mentioned  in  the  legend. 
And  the  evidence  that  the  legend  gives  in  support  of  its 
own  claims  is  merely  amusing  in  its  self-confident  incon- 
clusiveness. 

Legends  are  plenty  in  this  part  of  our  story,  and  we 
have  here  yet  to  notice,  as  bearing  on  the  problems  of 
the  moment  of  the  conquest,  a  tale  that  Lieutenant  Re- 
vere ^  first  told,  from  a  source  that  he  does  not  name, 
concerning  a  mysterious  junta  held  at  Monterey,  in 
May,  1846,  wherein  certain  principal  men  of  California, 
including,  among  others.  Governor  Pio  Pico  (who  was 
not  in  Monterey  or  near  it  at  all  during  this  time)  and 
General  Vallejo,  shall  have  discussed  the  situation, 
1  Tour  on  Duty  in  California,  p.  24. 


174  CALIFORNIA. 

and  shall  have  advised  together  whether  California 
ought  to  pass  over  to  the  United  States  or  to  some  Eu- 
ropean power.  The  speeches  of  these  dignitaries  are 
given  at  length  by  Lieutenant  Revere,  much  in  the  taste 
of  the  ancient  historians  ;  and  the  same  speeches  have 
been  slavishly  repeated  by  numberless  writers  ever 
since,  untU  General  Vallejo  has  been  himself  induced, 
in  recent  years,  to  remember  that  the  story,  save  as  to 
Pio  Pico  and  some  other  minor  matters,  is  substantially 
true,  even  down  to  the  details  of  General  Vallejo's  own 
speech.  There  is  little  reason,  however,  to  doubt  that 
the  story  is  substantially  legendary,  for  General  Vallejo, 
among  other  things,  remembers  the  meeting  as  one 
public  enough  to  be  attended  by  the  various  foreign 
consuls,  and,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  declares  it  to  have 
been  held  at  Larkin's  own  house,  and  to  have  been  offi- 
cially reported  by  the  well-known  official,  Hartnell. 
Yet  no  official  or  other  contemporary  MS.  record  of 
such  a  meeting  is  known  to  Mr.  Bancroft's  library,  nor 
is  such  a  record,  as  I  learn  on  questioning  at  Mr.  Ban- 
croft's library,  discoverable  in  the  archives  ;  and  as  for 
Larkin,  he,  who  could  not  possibly  have  been  ignorant 
of  such  a  junta,  knows  absolutely  nothing  about  it,  as 
appears  from  his  letters  to  the  State  Department. 

III.     THE   WOLF   AND   THE   LAMB. 

Treating  Macnamara's  scheme.  Admiral  Seymour's 
undertakings,  and,  in  general,  the  salvation  of  Califor^ 
nia  from  the  lion's  mouth,  with  the  indifference  that,  in 
the  present  state  of  the  historical  evidence,  these  mat- 
ters seem  to  deserve,  we  return  to  the  objectively  veri- 
fiable facts  of  the  conquest,  which  we  must  sketch  with 
continued  regard   for  our  special  interest  in  the  nar- 


I 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  175 


ative.  We  are  studying  these,  like  other  events,  as  facts 
of  importance  for  the  social  future  of  California,  and  as 
characteristic  of  our  nation. 

Sloat  raised  the  flag  at  Monterey  without  opposition, 
and  Captain  Montgomery,  at  Yerba  Buena,  did  the 
same.  Castro  was  in  the  interior,  and  Sloat  wrote  him, 
as  has  been  said,  begging  him  to  come  to  terms  without  a 
contest.  Castro  attempted  no  resistance,  but  retreated 
southward,  disgusted  with  the  agents  of  this  unintelli- 
gible power,  who,  as  it  seemed  to  him,  had  been  delib- 
erately trying  to  entrap  him  by  a  mixture  of  soft  words 
and  treacherous  violence.  In  his  replies  to  Sloat  ^  he 
gave  the  latter  to  understand  that  such  a  moment,  with 
the  Bear  Flag  people  disturbing  the  north  and  hostile 
ships  lying  in  the  harbor  of  Monterey,  was  not  the  oc- 
casion for  peaceful  negotiations,^  and  we,  who  know  now 
how  our  nation,  through  its  representatives,  had  been 
treating  Castro,  cannot  blame  him  for  his  mood.  He 
seemed  still  to  be  not  unmindful  of  the  possibility  of 
explanations  from  Sloat  that  might  make  negotiation 
feasible ;  but  he  had  little  hope  of  anything  but  force 
and  treachery.  On  his  way  southwards  he  met  Pio 
Pico,  who,  full  of  the  domestic  quarrels  of  the  times,  and 
ignorant  of  the  exact  situation,  had  been  coming  against 
him  with  hostile  intent.  The  two  resolved  to  lay  aside 
their  differences  for  the  present,  and  to  consider  what 
to  do  for  their  common  country.  The  proposed  junta 
that  had  been  appointed  to  meet  at  Santa  Barbara  June 

1  Sen.  Ex.  Doc,  2d  Ses.,  29th  Congr. ;  Doc.  1,  p.  647 ;  Doc.  19,  p. 
104. 

2  Castro  wrote  two  letters,  both  dated  July  9,  from  San  Juan  mis- 
sion. One  refuses  to  surrender  to  Sloat  until  after  a  consultation  with 
the  authorities  in  the  south.  The  other  demands  information  about 
iia.e.  marauders  in  the  north. 


176  CALIFORNIA. 

15,  to  discuss  the  situation,  and  to  consider  the  possible 
means  of  preparing  for  invasion  or  for  other  change, 
had  been  altogether  abandoned  weeks  before,  the  petty 
political  quarrels  of  the  Californians  being  in  part  re- 
sponsible for  this  result.^  And  now  the  duty  of  the 
two  chiefs  was  to  consider  what  should  be  the  means  to 
meet  the  entirely  new  conditions.  Could  they  resist  the 
American  invasion  ?  Or  should  they  seek  to  get  fair 
terms  from  a  power  that  had  just  proved,  by  its  appar- 
ent double-dealing,  its  determination  to  crush  them  al- 
together ?  Their  discussion  of  these  matters  was  broken 
by  a  somewhat  characteristic  dispute '^  concerning  the 
proper  person  to  have  command  of  the  forces  of  the 
north  and  the  south,  these  forces  being  now  united  at 
Los  Angeles,  whither  the  two  chiefs  had  retreated.  The 
controversy  was  at  length  settled  in  Castro's  favor ;  and 
an  effort  was  made  to  organize  some  resistance  to 
the  American  authorities,  since  favorable  negotiations 
seemed  out  of  the  question.  But  of  course  this  now 
distracted  land,  that  had  so  often  played  at  war,  but 
that  had  never  fought  a  real  battle,  had  neither  good 
weapons,  nor  trained  soldiers,  nor  powder,  nor  supplies. 
A  contest  against  the  United  States  forces  was,  how- 
ever one  might  pretend  to  organize  one's  resources, 
simply  hopeless,  and  Castro  knew  it,  although  he  tried 
to  save  after  a  fashion  his  personal  honor,  grossly  in- 
sulted as  it  had  been,  by  showing  a  bold  front  to  the 
enemy,  so  far  as  words  could  serve  him. 

Meanwhile  the  Americans  had  taken  possession  of  the 

1  Coronel,  in  his  statement,  B.  MS.,  refers  the  abandonment  of  the 
junta  to  political  difficulties;  but  of  course  the  troubles  that  had  now 
followed  would  have  rendered  the  meeting  in  any  case  useless. 

*  Coronel,  loc.  cit. 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  177 

main  posts  in  the  northern  country  from  Monterey  up- 
wards, without  immediate  opposition  of  any  sort.  But 
after  Caj)tain  Fremont  had  joined  the  forces  of  Commo- 
dore Sloat  at  Monterey,  an  unfavorable  change  had 
come  over  the  spirit  of  the  official  American  undertak- 
ings. Sloat,  namely,  had  abandoned  his  command  and 
returned  to  the  United  States,  while  Commodore  Stock- 
ton, who  had  atrived  in  the  Congress,  took  his  place. 
Stockton  had  brought  with  him  the  sealed  original  of 
the  now  useless  Larkin  dispatch.  He  was  under  orders 
to  deliver  this,  and  then  to  report  to  Sloat.  On  his  ar- 
rival he  found  himself  by  Sloat's  retirement  quickly 
intrusted  with  a  serious  responsibility,  which  he  used  for 
his  own  glory  and  amusement,  with  becoming  alacrity, 
and  with  some  genuine  courage  and  energy. 

A  brief  consultation  with  Captain  Fremont  seems  to 
have  had  far  more  weight  in  his  mind  than  what  he 
chose  to  learn  from  Sloat's  instructions.  To  conciliate 
the  people  of  California  without  or  before  conquering 
them  seemed  to  him,  as  to  the  gallant  captain,  nonsen- 
sical. He  chose,  apparently,  to  assume  that  the  gallant 
captain's  behavior  in  the  north  had  been  due  to  official 
instructions,  although,  at  that  early  day,  while  the  gal- 
lant captain's  memory  was  still  fresh  coiicerning  the 
whole  matter,  it  must  have  been  impossible  that  the 
latter  should  voluntarily  give  to  the  commodore  such  a 
mistaken  account  as  he  recently,  through  an  error  of 
memory,  gave  to  me.  But  doubtless,  if  he  was  silent 
on  the  subject,  his  silence  was  not  free  from  a  certain 
eloquence;  and,  at  all  events,  when  the  new  commo- 
dore's plans  were  once  laid  the  latter  prepared  a  proc- 
lamation that,  for  effrontery,  has  never  been  surpassed 
12 


178  CALIFORNIA. 

by  the  pronouncements  of  any  Mexican.*  This  proc- 
lamation was  issued  five  days  after  the  commodore  had, 
on  July  23,  assumed  command  of  the  forces  of  the 
United  States  on  the  coast,  and  four  days  after  he  had 
accepted  Captain  Fremont's  offer  of  the  improvised  force 
from  the  north,  and  had  organized  the  same  into  the 
"  California  battalion  of  mounted  riflemen."  The  proc- 
lamation expressed  the  commodore's  horror  on  assuming 
command,  at  hearing  of  "  scenes  of  rapine,  blood,  and 
murder  "  in  the  interior.  Who  was  really  responsible 
for  such  scenes,  in  so  far  as  they  were  actual,  he,  of 
course,  ignored  ;  and  hence  found  himself  "  constrained 
by  every  principle  of  national  honor  ...  to  put  an  end, 
at  once  and  by  force,  to  the  lawless  depredations  daily 
committed  by  General  Castro's  men  upon  the  persons 
and  property  of  peaceful  and  unoffending  inhabitants." 
This  proclamation  of  the  wolf  to  the  lamb  was  surely 
almost  as  good,  in  its  way,  as  Ide's  oration  to  the  inhab- 
itants of  Sonoma,  and  the  words  so  far  used  are  fuUy 
borne  out  by  the  rest  of  the  document.  Stockton  re- 
ferred, rather  covertly,  to  the  duty  which  even  he  must 
have  felt  devolving  upon  him,  as  Sloat's  successor,  to 
treat,  if  possible,  in  a  peaceful  spirit  with  the  authori- 
ties of  the  country.  But,  as  he  felt,  he  could  not,  much 
to  his  regret,  live  up  to  these  instructions  of  his  prede- 

1  Cf.  Tuthill's  remark,  History  of  California,  p.  186 :  "There  was 
not  wanting  a  certain  Mexican  flavor  in  this"  (proclamation).  Tut- 
hill's account  of  the  early  part  of  the  conquest  appears  to  me,  of  course, 
in  view  of  the  foregoing  considerations,  very  imperfect  and  erroneous 
as  concerns  some  weighty  matters,  although  in  the  better  known  details 
It  is  fairly  sound.  Yet  I  cannot  but  refer  the  reader  to  Tuthill's  pages 
]U8t  here,  in  view  of  the  decidedly  graceful  stj'le  and  the  generally 
sober  and  excellent  spirit  in  which  he  tells  the  story.  See,  further; 
Stockton's  proclamation  of  July  28,  1846,  in  the  Annals  of  San  Fran- 
Cisco,  p.  104. 


THE   CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  179 

cesser.  So  the  proclamation  at  least  suggested.  What 
it  said  was  :  "  I  cannot  therefore  confine  my  operations 
to  the  quiet  and  undisturbed  possession  of  the  defense- 
less ports  of  Monterey  and  San  Francisco,  whilst  the 
people  elsewhere  are  suffering  from  lawless  violence,  but 
will  immediately  march  against  these  boastful  and  abu- 
sive chiefs,  .  .  .  who,  unless  driven  out,  will  .  .  .  keep 
this  beautiful  country  in  a  constant  state  of  revolution 
and  bloodshed." 

The  Californian  battalion  had  now  already  embarked 
for  San  Diego  in  the  Cyane,  that  they  might  be  landed 
south  of  Castro,  to  cut  off  his  retreat,  a  plan  that  proved 
in  the  sequel  ineffective.  Stockton  himself  sailed  in  the 
Congress  for  San  Pedro,  the  port  of  Los  Angeles,  and 
there  landed  a  force,  formed  from  the  sailors  and  ma- 
rines, with  six  small  cannon.  Of  Stockton's  vast  cour- 
age and  energy  in  landing  such  a  crowd  of  sea-dogs  to 
undertake  a  hunt  on  dry  land,  and  in  training  them, 
after  a  fashion,  for  this  new  sort  of  chase,  directed  as 
it  was  against  what  he  himself  chose  to  pretend  to 
consider  a  strong  and  well-fortified  force  of  Californi- 
ans,  well  used  to  the  country,  —  of  all  this,  Stockton's 
admirers,  among  whom  he  was  undoubtedly  the  chief, 
have  taken  no  small  pains  to  convince  us.^  We  should 
be  better  convinced  of  this  if  Stockton's  opportuni- 
ties to  learn  from  the  gallant  captain,  and  from  others, 
the  utter  helplessness  of  this  little  nation  of  herdsmen 
and  colonists,  had  not  been  so  sufficient,  even  in  the 
very  few  days  that  passed  ere  his  plans  weie  formed. 

1  See  Stockton  himself,  in  his  mock-modest  report  to  the  secre- 
tary of  the  navy,  in  the  alread}'^  cited  Doc.  19,  p.  106  (or  Doc.  1,  also 
cited,  p.  668)';  and  the  Annals  of  Snn  Francisco,  pp.  102  and  105. 
Cf.  the  much  more  sensible  but  still  too  good-humored  account  of 
Tuthill,  pp.  187,  188. 


180  CALIFORNIA. 

In  fact,  save  by  way  of  a  certain  bustle  of  prepara- 
tion at  Los  Angeles,  Castro  and  the  rest  could  do  sim- 
ply nothing  in  the  short  time  left  them.  Castro,  indeed, 
made  an  effort  to  open  with  Stockton,  as  the  latter 
approached,  the  negotiations  that  he  still  thought  due 
to  himself  in  view  of  Sloat's  earlier  efforts  to  concil- 
iate him.  But  it  was  hoping  against  hope  to  expect 
Stockton,  who  wanted  nothing  but  noise  and  a  warrior's 
glory,  either  to  understand  his  true  obligations  to  Castro 
and  to  the  other  Californians,  or  to  consider  such  obli- 
gations as  important.  Castro  surely,  for  his  own  honor's 
sake,  ought  not  to  have  approached  Stockton  with  any 
further  shows  of  negotiation.  Yet,  for  the  sake,  I  sup- 
pose, of  getting  better  terms  for  his  countrymen,  Castro 
did  make  such  an  approach,  through  messengers,  to 
Stockton,  as  the  latter  was  on  the  march  towards  Los 
Angeles.  The  messengers  were  insultingly  received, 
and  a  message  was  sent  back  demanding  unconditional 
surrender.  Resistance  was  of  course  hopeless  without 
arms  or  powder,  and  both  Castro  and  Pico  set  out  for 
Mexico. 

On  the  13th  of  August,  Stockton,  who  had  now  been 
joined  by  the  California  battalion  (which  had  landed 
at  San  Diego,  and  come  northward),  entered  Los  An- 
geles with  his  full  force,  and,  unresisted,  raised  the  flag. 
Shortly  afterwards  he  issued  several  proclamations,  on 
successive  days,  declaring  the  country  a  part  of  the  ter- 
ritory of  the  United  States,  and  making  arrangements 
for  a  provisional  government.  Now  that  he  had  made 
a  glorious  conquest,  with  his  marines,  in  face  of  the 
aforesaid  overwhelming  odds,  he  felt  at  liberty  to  speak 
more  peaceably,  for  the  moment,  to  the  inhabitants  of 
the  land.     They   should   be  allowed,  his   proclamations 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  181 

assured  them,  to  elect  alcaldes  and  municipal  officers 
throughout  the  territory.  They  should  be  unmolested 
in  their  regular  business,  and,  if  they  submitted  quietly, 
they  should  be  considered  as  citizens  of  the  territory, 
and  protected  accordingly.  They  should  soon  be  gov- 
erned by  a  regular  governor,  secretary,  and  legislative 
council,  to  whose  provisional  appointment  he  would 
promptly  see.  In  the  mean  time,  of  course,  there  would 
remain  a  good  deal  of  martial  law  about  their  position. 
I  "  All  persons  who,  without  special  permission,  are  found 
with  arms  outside  their  own  houses  will  be  considered 
as  enemies,  and  will  be  shipped  out  of  the  country." 
The  California  battalion  would  remain  in  service  for 
the  present.-^ 

As  to  what  they  expressed  in  so  many  words,  Stock- 
ton's proclamations  of  August  15-22,  if  placed  side 
by  side  with  Sloat's  proclamation  of  July  7,  issued 
upon  the  raising  of  the  flag,  would  seem  at  first  glance 
to  differ  mainly  by  containing  more  details,  such  as 
would  naturally  be  suggested  by  a  more  advanced  stage 
of  the  conquest.  Yet,  if  one  looks  more  carefully,  one 
finds  a  serious  difference  in  spirit,  with  one  important, 
but  since  then  seldom  sufficiently  recognized,  difference 
in  the  pledges  made.  For  Sloat,  the  Californians  are 
the  inhabitants  of  a  nearly  independent  province,  whom 
he  wishes  to  conciliate,  not  only  as  individuals,  but  as 
a  people,  having  a  genuine  political  unity.  California 
is  to  be  relieved  henceforth  from  the  corrupt  and  dis- 
orderly rule  of  "  the  central  government  of  Mexico," 
which  Sloat,  by  this  expression,  takes  care  to  represent 
as  not  identical  with  the  proper  government  of  California 
itself,  but  as  rather  a  relatively  foreign  and  disturbing 
1  Docs,  as  cited :  Doc.  1,  p.  669,  sqq. ;  Doc.  19,  p.  107,  sqq. 


182  CALIFORNIA. 

force  in  Californian  affairs.  As  for  the  Californians 
themselves,  Sloat  has  "  full  confidence  in  their  honor 
and  integrity,"  and  accordingly  invites  "  the  judges, 
alcaldes,  and  other  civil  officers  "  (a  rather  dubious  form 
of  language,  that  undoubtedly,  however,  if  strictly  inter- 
preted, would  have  included  Pio  Pico  and  the  depart- 
mental assembly,  in  case  they  had  consented  to  be  in- 
cluded) "  to  retain  their  offices,  and  to  execute  their 
functions  as  heretofore,  that  the  public  tranquillity  may 
not  be  disturbed ;  at  least,  until  the  government  of  the, 
territory  can  be  more  definitely  arranged." 

Now  an  essential  part  of  the  pledge  thus  made  by 
Sloat,  Stockton,  after  his  interview  with  the  gallant 
Captain  Fremont,  and  before  he  could  know  of  the  way 
in  which  Pico  and  the  assembly  could  be  induced  to 
view  the  matter,  in  case  they  should  be  wisely  ap- 
proached, simply  tore  up  and  flung  to  the  winds. 
Personal  glory  did  not  lie  for  him  in  the  direction  of 
negotiations  with  the  "  other  civil  officers,"  nor  did  he, 
like  Sloat,  come  as  the  "  best  friend  of  California,"  anx- 
ious to  avoid  bloodshed.  Sloat  had  written  to  ask  both 
Castro  and  Pico  to  a  council  at  Monterey,  under  a  sol- 
emn assurance  of  a  safe-conduct  if  they  should  consent 
to  come.  But  all  this  was  naught  for  Stockton.  To  be 
sure,  he  was  not  very  malicious.  He  did  not  want  to 
oppress  the  Californians,  when  once  he  should  have  con- 
quered them.  He  only  wanted  his  fun,  as  a  gallant  and 
glory-seeking  American  officer,  out  of  tlje  business  of 
conquering  them.  Then  indeed  he  could  afford  to  be 
-9  generous.  But  first  he  must  have  the  fight.  But  as 
there  was  nobody  in  the  territory  capable  of  fighting 
'  him  with  any  prospect  of  success,  Stockton,  after  bully- 
ing and  exasperating  the  defenseless  provincial  govern" 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  183 

ment  and  people  with  insulting  proclamations  and  dem- 
onstrations, had  at  last  to  be  content  for  the  moment 
with  such  glory  as  these  bloodless  exercises  could  give 
him.  And  so,  in  the  proclamations  of  August  15-22, 
he  has  at  length  to  treat  the  Californians  with  the  con- 
descending airs  of  a  generous  conqueror.  He  proclaims 
a  blockade  of  the  whole  coast  against  all  but  American 
merchant  vessels ;  he  introduces  several  provisions  of 
martial  law  ;  he  undertakes  to  establish  very  soon  a  pro- 
visional governor  and  legislative  assembly,  and  merely 
"  permits  "  the  people  to  elect  their  local  civil  officers. 
All  these  provisions  are,  of  course,  in  perfect  accord 
with  the  usages  of  civilized  conquerors,  and  do  not  ex- 
ceed Stockton's  temporary  authority,  so  long  as  one  con- 
siders him  commander  of  a  conquering  force  ;  but  to 
convert  the  seizure  of  California  into  a  military  conquest 
at  all,  when  as  yet  the  inhabitants  had  made  absolutely 
no  violent  resistance  to  the  regular  forces  of  the  United 
States,  was  against  the  whole  spirit  of  the  plans  and  in- 
structions of  our  government.  Our  official  plan  was  to 
take  possession  of  the  ports,  and  to  invite  the  inhabitants 
either  to  join  us,  or  to  retain,  at  any  rate,  their  domestic 
freedom  of  action,  while  keeping  the  peace  towards  us. 
If  the  inhabitants  had  violently  resisted  this  plan,  then 
we  should  have  been  obliged  to  conquer  them  ;  but  as 
yet  they  had  never  resisted  us,  save  by  the  use  of  a  few 
very  naturally  bold  words,  uttered  in  the  first  shock  of 
their  vexation.  They  had  only  resisted  the  marauders 
in  the  north,  who  had  been  in  arms  against  the  express 
commands  of  our  government,  as  communicated  to  Cap- 
tain Fremont  by  Lieutenant  Gillespie.  Therefore  our 
pretense  of  needing  to  conquer  the  inhabitants  was  a 
mere  show,  gotten  up  either  to  justify  the  affair  in  the 


184  CALIFORNIA. 

north,  or  to  satisfy  a  vain  love  of  personal  glory  in  the 
wanton  mind  of  Commodore  Stockton,  or,  more  prob- 
ably, to  do  both.  And  the  only  outcome  of  it  all  was 
the  exasperation  of  the  natives.  All  the  assurances  of 
good-will  and  all  the  fine  promises  that,  in  Stockton's 
proclamations  of  August,  give  these  documents  at  first 
sight  an  apparently  close  connection  and  agreement  with 
Sloat's  pledges  of  July  7,  could  not  serve  to  hide  by  fine 
phrases  the  essential  perfidy  of  our  conduct  towards  the 
Calif ornians.  The  people  at  large  knew,  of  course,  noth- 
ing of  the  Larkin  intrigue.  But  they  did  know,  or  at 
least  believed,  that  we  had  been  long  scheming  to  get 
the  country,  that  our  agents  had  made  many  promises, 
that  we  had  then  brutally  attacked  the  people  in  the 
north,  and  that  we  had  thereafter  taken  violent  posses- 
sion of  the  country,  publishing  proclamations  in  which 
assurances  of  peace  and  good-will  were  so  mingled  with 
threats  and  abuse  that  nobody  could  make  out  more  of 
their  meaning  than  that  they  signified  the  use  of  force 
at  present  and  of  probable  oppression  in  future.  Hence- 
forth all  respectable  and  honorable  Californians  were 
apt  to  suspect,  if  not  to  detest,  us,  unless,  indeed,  they 
should  prove  very  forgiving. 

IV.    THE   REVOLT   AND   THE   RE-CONQUEST. 

And  yet  even  now,  by  a  proper  behavior,  we  might 
have  slowly  won  back  something  of  the  confidence  and 
good-will  of  the  people,  notwithstanding  all  that  had 
happened.  Of  course,  thus  far,  our  ill-treatment  of  them 
had  been  at  worst  largely  the  consequence  of  a  char- 
acteristic wantonness,  ignorance,  and  personal  ambi- 
tion on  the  part  of  our  agents,  and  not  the  expression 
of  any  deliberate  determination  to  oppress  the  natives, 


THE  CONQUEST   COMPLETED.  185 

when  once  we  should  have  taken  their  land.  Much  as 
we  had  by  this  time  exasperated  them,  there  was  a  pos- 
sibility of  repentance.  In  some  directions,  moreover, 
repentance  soon  seemed  to  be  taking  effect. 

And  first  on  the  list  of  those  who,  after  this  provis- 
ional completion  of  the  conquest,  began  to  show  a  desire 
to  treat  our  new  subjects  as  fellow-citizens  and  friends, 
one  must  mention  with  great  satisfaction  the  name  of 
no  less  a  person  than  the  gallant  captain  himself,  the 
chief  author  of  the  foregoing  mischief.  "We  have 
throughout  been  ready  to  see,  in  all  the  serious  mistakes 
and  evils  of  his  conduct,  rather  the  expression  of  bad 
advice  from  home,  or  of  wanton  personal  ambition, 
than  the  outcome  of  any  deliberate  malice  towards  the 
Californians  themselves.  Their  interest  before  the  con- 
quest stood  in  the  way  of  his  plans,  and  in  so  far  he 
was  guilty  of  immeasurable  injustice  to  their  rights  and 
to  their  future  prosperity,  and  was  for  the  time  as  cruel 
as  he  was  unjust.  But  he  was  still  a  kindly  and  warm- 
hearted man,  whenever  his  ambitions,  or  his  private  in- 
terests, or  those  of  his  family,  were  not  concerned. 
And  he  now  had  for  the  moment  no  need  to  be  cruel  to 
the  fallen  foe.  On  the  contrary,  he  seems  at  once  to 
have  foreseen  an  opportunity  for  future  business  and 
social  relations  with  the  people,  such  as  led  him  now  to 
desire  their  friendship,  just  as  he  so  recently  had  deter- 
mined upon  their  overthrow.  He  was  quick  to  adapt 
himself  to  their  ways,  and  soon  began  to  win  the  per- 
sonal friendship  of  many  of  them.  Although  he  could 
no  longer  stay  the  bitter  consequences  for  the  whole  land 
of  his  folly  in  the  north,  consequences  which  remain 
until  this  day?  and  will  yet  long  remain,  he  could  al- 
ready excuse  himself  in  the  eyes  of  some  even  of  the 


186  CALIFORNIA. 

natives  by  neglecting  to  assume  his  full  share  of  personal 
responsibility  for  the  outbreak ;  and  he  could  mean- 
while use  his  undoubted  personal  charm  to  win  the 
hearts  of  hospitable  Californians.^  What  was  evil 
about  the  matter  our  government  had  especially  to  an- 
swer for,  in  the  minds  of  the  people,  and  so  the  captain 
himself  began  to  evade  personal  censure ;  nor  has  he 
ever  since  left  off.  But  at  all  events  this  new  course  of 
conduct  was  not  only  prudent,  but  so  far  as  the  Califor- 
nians  were  concerned  generous  and  just ;  and  the  gal- 
lant captain  deserves  all  due  credit  for  it. 

With  this  new-found  wisdom  of  Captain  Fremont's 
well  agrees  also  the  more  habitual  conduct  of  such  a 
man  as  the  Rev.  Walter  Colton  at  Monterey,  whose 
book,  "  Three  Years  in  California,"  ^  gives  us  such  an  ex- 
cellent notion  of  some  aspects  of  the  days  of  the  inter- 

1  Coronel,  in  his  B.  MS.  statement,  contrasts  the  conduct  of  the  gal- 
lant captain  in  the  south  at  this  moment  very  favorably  with  that  of 
other  American  officers,  after  the  conquest  w^as  once  for  the  time 
over:  "  Fremont  se  entrego  a  las  diversiones  del  pais,  se  familiarizo 
prontamente  con  los  habitantes,  adoptando  sus  trajes  y  modo  de  vivir 
hasta  cierto  grado.  El  se  vestia  como  los  rancheros,  y  andaba  a  ca- 
ballo  con  ellos;  se  hicieron  tan  intimas  las  relaciones  entre  ^1  y  los  del 
pais,  que  ya  muchos  de  estos  le  tuteaban."  This  personal  affability 
of  conduct  and  this  charm  of  manner  could  not  at  once,  Coronel  says, 
conquer  the  objections  of  many  of  the  principal  families  ;  but  the  im- 
pression produced  on  the  mass  of  the  people  was  excellent,  so  far  as  it 
went. 

2  New  York,  1852.  The  author,  a  chaplain  in  the  navy,  was  ap- 
pointed provisional  alcalde  of  Monterey  b}'  Commodore  Stockton  on 
July  28,  1846,  was  formally  elected  by  the  people  to  the  same  office 
at  the  election  under  Stockton's  proclamation,  September  15,  and  re- 
mained in  the  country  until  after  the  gold  discovery.  He  tells  us  his 
story  in  diary  form,  and  includes  in  it  too  much  of  his  decidedly  inno- 
cent inner  life  for  the  purposes  of  such  a  work;  but  6f  the  condition  of 
the  country  he  has  also  much  to  tell  that  is  very  helpful.  September 
4,  1846,  he  held  the  first  jury  trial  in  California.  He  was  throughout 
»n  efficient  and  popular  officer. 


THE   CONQUEST   COMPLETED.  187 

regnum.  He  found  the  people  good-humored,  and  dis- 
posed to  submit  to  their  fate.  He  studied  them  thought- 
fully ;  applied  from  the  first  a  sensible  and  tolerant 
mind  to  understanding  and  to  helping  them,  in  his  office 
as  alcalde ;  and  was  in  all  respects  an  example  of  the 
more  enlightened  American  influence  at  its  very  best,  in 
a  time  of  transition.  The  people  of  Monterey  liked 
him,  and  felt  generally  contented  with  the  new  rule  as 
represented  by  him. 

Some  of  the  new  officials,  also,  were  Americans  who 
had  long  been  in  the  country,  who  had  not  participated 
in  the  sins  of  the  conquest,  and  who  were  the  men  for 
the  place.  But  there  were  exceptions  to  the  excellent 
rule  thus  exemplified.  And  the  exceptions  were  numer- 
ous enough  to  keep  the  hatreds  of  the  moment  well  alive 
in  most  parts  of  the  country.  In  the  eyes  of  men  like 
Gillespie,  in  the  eyes  of  numerous  navy  officers  and 
men,  in  the  eyes  of  most  of  the  California  battalion,  the 
Californians  were,  after  what  had  happened,  a  boastful 
and  treacherous  people,  given  to  murder  and  pillage,  an 
inferior  race,  a  people  to  be  suspected,  to  be  kept  down 
with  a  strong  arm,  and  to  be  reminded  constantly  of 
their  position  as  the  vanquished.  Gillespie,  however, 
was  left  in  charge  at  Los  Angeles.  Other  navy  men 
werd  scattered  along  the  coast.  The  California  battal- 
ion was  under  arms,  was  expectant  of  its  pay,  and 
meanwhile  was  not  perfectly  contented.  The  result  of 
Gillespie's  intolerance  was  an  outbreak  at  the  south; 
and  in  this  movement  the  whole  country  south  of  the 
bay  more  or  less  sympathized  and  took  part.  In  the 
outbreak  the  native  people  gave  their  well-nursed  exas- 
peration vent.  Helpless  as  they  on  the  whole  were  be- 
fore  the  well-armed    Americans,   they   still  showed   of 


188  CALIFORNIA. 

what  stuff  they  were  made  by  resisting  on  at  least  two 
occasions,  namely,  near  San  Pedro  and  at  San  Pascual, 
with  stubbornness  and  not  without  success.  They  were 
by  January,  1847,  a  second  time  conquered,  this  time 
not  without  considerable  bloodshed,  and  the  bitterness 
of  the  conquest  was  thus  once  for  all  rendered  chronic, 
and  for  a  large  part  of  the  population  fatal.  For  the 
new  outbreak  had,  in  American  eyes,  all  the  character  of 
a  treacherous  revolt,  while  the  bloodshed  rendered  the 
hatred  of  the  native  population  thenceforth  undying. 
Everywhere  the  result  was  bad,  and  to  this  second  act 
of  the  conquest  the  subsequent  general  demoralization 
of  a  mass  of  the  native  population,  especially  in  the 
south,  may  be  directly  traced.  The  whole  disturbance 
was  a  fruitful  mother  of  bandits  and  vagabonds,  who 
vexed  the  California  of  later  days  for  a  score  of  years. 

Gillespie  at  Los  Angeles  was,  I  have  said,  the  immedi- 
ate cause  of  the  revolt.  This  distinguished  and  faithless 
bearer  of  dispatches  was  not  a  suitable  man  to  conciliate 
the  natives.  He  adopted  Commodore  Stockton's  tone, 
and  made  them  all  feel  the  bitterness  of  martial  law, 
vexing  them  with  unnecessary  regulations;  he  neither 
knew  nor  cared  to  know  the  customs  of  the  people.^     At 

1  The  general  feeling  is  no  doubt  fairly  voiced  by  Coronel,  who,  as 
resident,  was  directly  aware  of  what  went  on  in  Los  Angeles  at  the 
time.  Coronel,  a  man  of  thoroughly  trustworthy  character,  is  the 
Californian  to  -whom  Mrs.  Jackson  was  indebted  for  some  of  the  ac- 
counts of  the  scenes  of  the  re-conquest  that  she  repeated  in  her  well- 
known  articles  in  the  Century  Magazine.  His  statement  concerning 
Gillespie's  doings  at  this  moment  runs  (B.  MS.):  "Gillespie  .  .  .  era- 
pezo  a,  dictar  medidas  muy  opresivas  ;  per  esempio :  public6  una  orden 
para  que  no  anduviesen  dos  personas  juntas  en  las  calles  ;  para  que  no 
se  renuiesen  los  ciudadanos  baja  nigun  pretesto  en  sus  casas  ;  para  que 
se  cerrasen  las  tiendas  de  comestibles  a  la  puesta  del  sol."  "  Gilles- 
pie," concludes  Coronel,  "tenia  a  esta  gente  tan  obstinada  que  se  hizo 
una  especie  de  tiranuelo  odioso." 


last,  a  propo 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  189 


st,  a  propos  of  the  arbitrary  arrest  of  a  citizen,  a  dis- 
turbance broke  out ;  and  this  led  to  more  arrests.  One 
man  whose  arrest  was  at  this  time  ordered,  J.  M.  Flores, 
an  officer  under  the  previous  government,  fled  from  the 
town,  and  began  to  form  a  party  of  the  discontented 
fugitives  outside.  Flores  was,  unfortunately  for  his  fu- 
ture reputation  in  history,  a  paroled  military  officer,  and 
so  were  a  number  of  those  who  joined  him.  The  re- 
volt, as  an  expression  of  outraged  public  opinion,  would 
indeed  have  been  justifiable  enough,  had  it  not  been 
hopeless ;  but  the  paroled  men  who  took  part  in  it  were 
numerous  enough  to  give  the  whole  affair  a  character 
of  which  the  contemporary  American  writers  were  not 
slow  to  take  advantage  in  what  they  said  of  it.  Yet  the 
insurgents  were  not  all  officers,  much  less  paroled  ones. 
The  revolt  was  a  popular  act.  The  incidents  of  the  re- 
conquest,  which  thus  opens,  are  complex  and  exciting, 
and  form  a  fruitful  subject  of  controversy.  Our  pur- 
poses and  our  limits  forbid  us  to  dwell  upon  them,  and 
above  all  upon  the  controversy  that  they  led  to,  —  the 
famous  controversy  between  General  Kearny  and  Cap- 
tain (or  now  more  properly  Lieutenant-Colonel)  Fre- 
mont. These  details,  which  would  be  necessary  in  a 
complete  history  of  California,  are  neither  so  character- 
istic of  the  forces  at  work,  nor  so  fateful  for  the  future 
of  California,  as  those  that  we  have  been  already  treat- 
ing.! 

1  Authorities  in  print  and  easily  accessible  concerning  the  revolt  are, 
of  compendious  narratives,  Tuthill's  in  his  Histor}',  Bryant's  (from 
personal  observation)  in  his  What  I  saw  in  California,  Cutts's  in  his 
Conquest  of  California  and  New  Mexico,  and  the  story  as  told  in  the 
Annals  of  San  Francisco.  The  proceedings  of  the  Fremont-Kearny 
court-martial  contain  much  original  matter.  Hall's  History  of  San 
Jose  treats  of  the  revolt  in  that  region.     Lieutenant  Cooke's  Conquest 


190  CALIFORNIA. 

In  brief,  however,  Gillespie's  position  at  Los  Angeles 
became  untenable  against  the  overwhelming  numbers  of 
the  revolting  party.  After  a  lively  siege,  some  of  whose 
incidents  Coronel  recounts,  in  his  statement  to  Mr. 
Bancroft,  with  much  zest,  Gillespie  capitulated,  retiring 
to  Monterey.  The  revolting  party  labored  hard  to  get 
powder  and  other  supplies,  and  Floras  issued  vigorous 
proclamations.  At  Santa  Barbara  Lieutenant  Talbot 
escaped  with  his  men  from  the  besieging  force.  The 
lower  country  was  soon  largely  overrun  by  them. 

Stockton  promptly  heard  of  these  troubles.  He  was 
at  Yerba  Buena  at  the  time,  and  at  a  banquet  that  had 
been  tendered  him  by  the  Americans  of  the  place  he 
made  a  speech  concerning  the  news,  in  his  most  brutal 
and  boastful  tone,  showing  not  the  least  sense  of  tlje 
position  and  feelings  of  the  people,  announcing  his  in- 
tention to  make  quick  work  of  the  revolt,  and  express- 
ing in  a  violent  way  his  opinion  of  those  engaged  in  it. 
He  then  set  sail  for  San  Pedro  in  the  Congress,  having 
previously  sent  the  Savannah  with  Captain  Mervine  to 
the  same  place.  The  California  battalion  embarked  for 
Santa  Barbara,  but  had  to  return  to  get  horses,  which 
they  had  hoped  to  get  at  Santa  Barbara.  Mervine, 
meanwhile,  had  landed  at  San  Pedro,  and  had  set  out 
for  Los  Angeles,  hoping  to  win  the  glory  of  defeating 
the  revolters  himself.  His  marines  were  met  by  a  party 
of  mounted  Californians,  who  dragged  with  them  a  single 
gun  on  wheels.     They  had  but  a  few  charges  of  powder, 

of  New  Mexico  and  California  is  an  incomplete  and  one-sided  but 
not  valueless  account,  by  one  of  the  oflScers  concerned  in  the  closing 
scenes.  Colton  in  his  Three  Years  also  gives  some  details,  and  so  does 
Lieutenant  Revere,  in  his  Tour  on  Duty.  Authorities  concerning  par- 
ticular scenes  and  controversies  are  very  numerous,  and  many  of  them 
itill  inedited. 


THE   CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  191 

but  these  they  used  so  effectively,  dragging  their  gun, 
after  each  discharge,  out  of  Mervine's  rifle  range,  that, 
before  their  little  supply  was  exhausted,  several  of  Mer- 
vine's men  had  been  killed,  and  he  had  become  discour- 
aged and  had  retreated  to  his  ship.  Stockton,  arriving 
at  San  Pedro,  and  suffering  from  a  lack  of  supplies, 
took  his  force  by  water  to  San  Diego,  where  he  landed 
in  November,  drove  off  the  enemy,  and  established  a 
camp. 

Meanwhile  the  Califomians,  who  had  been  hoping  for 
help  from  Mexico,  found  themselves  threatened,  although, 
for  the  moment,  not  very  seriously,  from  a  new  quarter. 
General  Kearny,  namely,  was  approaching  from  New 
Mexico,  but  with  only  a  small  detachment  of  dragoons. 
The  general  ftiad  already  completed  his  little  conquest 
of  New  Mexico,  and)  had  ^  now  come  on  to  California,  of 
which  he  had  been  ordered  to  take  possession,  and  in 
which  he  was  commissioned  to  found  a  civil  government. 
He  too  had  been  ordered,  like  Sloat,  to  "  act  in  such  a 
manner  as  best  to  conciliate  the  inhabitants,  and  render 
them  friendly  to  the  United  States,"  but  his  orders  were, 
of  course,  unlike  Sloat's,  subsequent  to  the  date  of  the 
declaration  of  war.^  He  was,  however,  still  expected  to 
form  his  civil  government,  as  far  as  possible,  in  con- 
formity with  the  existing  conditions,  and  with  all  proper 
use  of  the  actual  native  government  and  officers  found 
in  the  territory. 

On  the  way  from  New  Mexico,  Kearny  had  been  met 
by  an  express  conveying  dispatches  from  Stockton  and 

1  See  the  often  herein  cited  Doc.  19,  p.  6.  The  instructions  to 
Colonel  Stevenson,  issued  later  than  Kearny's,  when  Stevenson  was 
sent  to  California  around  the  Horn,  with  his  well-known  regiment  of 
volunteers,  were  to  make  the  inhabitants  "  feel  that  we  come  as  de- 
liverers "  {loc.  cit.,^.  12). 


192  CALIFORNIA. 

from  Captain  Fremont  to  the  government  at  Washington,^ 
and  announcing  the  conquest  of  the  country.  In  conse- 
quence of  the  information  that  he  thus  received  as  to  the 
condition  of  California,  Kearny  had  left  in  New  Mexico 
a  part  of  his  force,  and,  expecting  Cooke  with  the  "  Mor- 
mon battalion  "  to  follow  soon,  he  had  gone  on  with  about 
one  hundred  dragoons.  On  his  arrival  in  the  territory, 
he  found  himself  in  the  'presence  of  a  not  very  formid- 
able but  active  foe,  who  had  for  weeks  been  straining 
every  nerve  to  procure  the  means  for  fighting.  Kear- 
ny's own  supplies  were  low.  He  managed  to  send  a 
messenger  to  Stockton  at  San  Diego,  and  the  result  was 
that  a  detachment,  under  Lieutenant  Gillespie,  consist- 
ing of  about  thirty-five  mounted  men,  came  to  his  aid. 
Gillespie  joined  Kearny  near  San  Pascual.  On  the 
morning  of  December  6,  the  united  forces,  undertaking 
to  attack  the  Californians  at  San  Pascual,  suffered  se- 
rious loss,  and  gained  nothing.  This  fight,  which  was 
to  all  intents  and  purposes  a  defeat,  although  Kearny 
himself  did  not  confess  the  fact  in  his  official  reports, 
left  his  force  in  a  very  dangerous  position,  from  which 
it  was  rescued  by  another  detachment  of  Stockton's  men. 
The  forces  of  Kearny  and  Stockton  were  now  united, 
and,  without  coming  to  a  sufficiently  definite  agreement 
as  to  which  of  the  two  leaders,  under  the  circumstances, 
ought  to  be  considered  as  at  the  head  of  affairs  in  Cal- 
ifornia, both  the  officers  in  due  time  set  out  for  Los 
Angeles  together.  On  the  8th  of  January,  1847,  they 
found  the  enemy,  just  beyond  the  San  Gabriel  River. 
They  crossed  the  river  in  the  face  of  the  enemy's  quite 
ineffective  fire.     The  home-made  powder  of  the  Cali- 

1  See  his  testimony  before  the  court-martial,  Sen.  Ex.  Doc.  33,  Is* 
Sess.  30th  Congr.,  p.  41. 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  193 

f oriiians  was  in  fact  nearly  useless,  and  the  few  charges 
of  good  powder  that  had  proved  so  useful  in  meeting 
Mervine  near  San  Pedro  had  exhausted  the  little  stock 
that  the  Californians  possessed  of  that  kind.  The  com- 
modore, who  had  somewhat  rashly,  and  in  ignorance 
of  the  facts  about  the  resources  of  the  Californians,  or- 
dered the  troops  to  make  the  charge  across  the  river, 
took  great  credit  afterwards  for  this  new  triumph  over 
a  practically  defenseless  foe,  whose  harmless  bullets 
dropped  helplessly  all  about  the  men.  The  next  day, 
the  9th,  saw  the  last  armed  encounter  of  Californians 
and  Americans.  On  the  Mesa,  north  of  the  river,  the 
mounted  Californians  undertook  once  more  to  resist 
their  foe.  But,  after  a  few  spirited  but  quite  useless 
attempted  charges,  and  some  slight  loss,  they  broke  al- 
together and  fled.  /Abandoning  Los  Angeles,  the  chiefs, 
with  what  force  remained  to  them,  retreated  northward 
to  meet  Captain,  or,  as  he  was  now  oftener  called  since 
his  battalion  had  been  organized.  Major  Fremont,  in 
order  to  surrender  to  him  rather  than  to  Stockton  and 
Kearny,  who  had  given  notice  of  their  intention  to  spare 
no  men  whose  parole  had  been  broken.J 

Of  Major  Fremont's  conduct  since  he  had  returned 
northward  from  Santa  Barbara  we  need  not  speak  in 
detail.  He  had  shown  becoming  energy  in  getting 
horses  and  supplies  for  his  battalion,  and  in  raising  fur- 
ther volunteers.  The  country,  including  the  more 
peaceable  natives,  had  had  to  suffer,  meanwhile,  from 
the  loss  of  the  horses  and  the  supplies,  but,  at  the  mo- 
ment, some  such  seizures  were  simply  necessary,  and 
there  was  no  cash  on  hand  to  pay  for  them ;  so  that  the 
faith  of  the  government  had  to  be  pledged  instead. 
The  misfortune  that  all  this  increased  the  old  feeling  of 
13 


194  CALIFORNIA. 

disgust  for  American  rule  was  now,  of  course,  inevita- 
ble, and  the  leader  of  the  battalion  could  no  longer  pre- 
vent that.  The  further  fact  that  many  new-comers  by 
the  large  and  able  immigration  of  1846,  fresh  from 
across  the  plains,  were  enlisted  in  the  battalion,  and 
thus  from  the  first  moment  met  the  Californians  in  a 
hostile  spirit,  was  also  a  fact  full  of  evil  for  the  future, 
since  many  of  the  men  of  1846  were  destined  to  play  no 
small  part  in  the  history  of  California,  and  were  often 
to  be  men  of  great  authority  as  pioneers.  And  of 
course  they  thenceforth  remembered  the  Californians  as 
treacherous  rebels,  and  believed  all  the  absurdities  that 
they  heard  concerning  the  Bear  Flag  legend.  But  all 
this  was  now  but  one  more  link  in  the  fatal  chain  of  in- 
justice. Beyond  this,  however,  the  northern  operations 
during  the  suppression  of  the  revolt  were  generally  hu- 
mane. The  disturbances  near  Santa  Clara  and  near 
Monterey  were  suppressed  by  detachments  of  our  forces. 
'The  main  body  of  the  California  battalion,  proceeding 
southward,  under  its  leader,  crossed  the  Santa  Inez 
Mountains  on  Christmas  Day,  in  cold  and  storm,  and 
then  proceeded  in  the  same  direction  far  enough  for 
Major  Fremont  to  receive  at  Cahuenga,  on  January  11, 
in  his  capacity  as  military  commandant  of  California, 
under  Stockton's  appointment,  the  capitulation  of  the 
Californian  chiefs,  whom,  to  the  great  disgust  of  Stock- 
ton, the  gallant  leader  of  the  battalion  was  bold  enough 
to  pardon  altogether,  saying  nothing  of  the  broken  pa- 
roles. His  act  was  as  generous  as  it  was  poHtic,  and  it 
had  for  him  the  advantage  also  of  redounding  to  his 
personal  glory,  since  in  performing  it  he  somewhat  ex- 
ceeded the  authority  that  even  Stockton  might  be  sup. 
posed   to   have   given   him    (so  long  as  the  latter  was 


THE   CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  195 

actually  carrying  on  the  war),  and  yet  did  so  in  the  ob- 
vious interests  of  humanity  and  good  order.  Both  Stock- 
ton and  Kearny  were  forced  —  at  least  in  so  far  as  con- 
cerned the  amnesty  —  to  accept  the  act  once  executed  ; 
the  amnesty  was  thus,  once  for  all,  complete,  land  the 
next  scene  was  no  longer  one  of  war  with  Californians, 
but  of  a  quarrel  between  Stockton  and  Kearny  about 
the  authority  to  govern  the  conquered  territory.  Into 
tliis  quarrel,  as  we  know,  the  young  military  command- 
ant of  California  under  Stockton  became  involved,  being 
appointed  governor  by  Stockton. 

Of  personal  popularity,  the  leader  of  the  California 
battalion  had  won  back,  through  his  crowning  act  of 
clemency  to  the  parole-breaking  leaders  of  the  revolt, 
more  than  he  personally  had  lost  by  those  acts  in  the 
north  that  the  natives  now  generally  attributed  to  the 
secret  commands  of  his  government.  With  not  unnafc 
ural  pride  he  later  pointed  out  before  the  court-martial 
at  Washington  how  he,  the  "  conqueror  of  California," 
could  thenceforth  have  ridden  unguarded  and  alone 
through  the  whole  length  of  the  province  without  any 
trace  of  personal  danger.  Apparently  he  had  atoned  for 
his  monumental  mischief-making ;  but  the  atonement  was 
only  apparent.  Although  the  native  people,  who  knew 
nothing  of  the  mystery,  might  fail  to  recognize  the  chain 
of  causes  that  connected  all  their  troubles  with  his  pri- 
vate responsibility,  the  irrevocable  wrong  was  now  done. 
Clemency  to  individuals  could  win  him  great  personal 
popularity,  but  it  could  never  in  fact  unite  the  two  peo- 
ples in  the  land  whom  he  had  now  sundered  in  fierce 
hatred,  nor  atone  for  the  ruin  already  wrought  and 
thenceforth  to  follow.  The  very  evils  that  his  clemency 
moderated  were  all  his  own  doing. 


196  CALIFORNIA. 

Of  the  details  of  the  Stockton-Kearny-Fremont  quar- 
rel we  have  here  nothing  to  say.  In  all  hut  technical 
right  the  young  governor  whom  Stockton  appointed 
appears  almost  throughout  in  a  far  better  light  than 
Kearny.  And  technical  affairs  of  military  law  are  of 
no  concern  here.  It  is  enough  to  remind  the  reader 
that  Governor  Fremont  was  at  length  obliged  to  yield, 
and  that  in  June,  1847,  he  set  out  for  the  East,  across 
the  plains,  in  company  with  Kearny,  and  thereafter 
was,  as  we  have  already  seen,  court-martialed  for  his 
disobedience  of  Kearny's  orders.  He  was  convicted 
on  largely  technical  grounds,  and  pardoned  by  the  pres- 
ident. He  declined  to  accept  the  president's  clemency, 
and  resigned  his  commission.  This  court-martial  only 
added  to  his  popular  glory,  and  discovered  to  the  public 
nothing  of  his  real  offense  of  an  earlier  date.  The  cab- 
inet was  bound,  of  course,  to  keep  the  Larkin  intrigue 
secret.  They  had  accepted,  meanwhile,  in  an  official 
document  (the  Report  of  the  secretary  of  war),  the 
first  theory  propounded  by  Senator  Benton  in  his  letter 
to  the  president,  founded  on  his  earliest  private  advices 
from  Captain  Fremont.  This  afore-mentioned  theory, 
as  we  know,  gave  Castro's  mythical  onslaught  as  the 
justification  of  the  Bear  Flag  affair.  The  cabinet  had 
no  means,  therefore,  of  calling  the  young  officer  to  pub- 
lic account  for  his  true  disobedience;  nor  had  they, 
probably,  in  view  of  Senator  Benton's  position  and  in- 
fluence, even  the  wish  to  do  so.  For  their  purpose  it 
was  now  enough  that  the  country  was  ours.  And  so 
the  whole  matter  was  thenceforth,  although  not  forever, 
enveloped  in  official  prevarication  and  in  mystery. 

But  the  quarrel  of  the  chiefs  had  been  yet  one  more 
serious  evil  to  California.     Some  of  the  important  pro< 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED,  197 

visions  of  the  Cahuenga  capitulation,  relating,  indeed, 
not  to  the  amnesty  but  to  the  legal  status  of  the  inhab- 
itants, had  been  disregarded  in  later  proclamations  by 
Kearny,  and  were  disregarded  by  his  successor,  Colonel 
Mason.  The  California  battalion  was  refused  pay  by 
Kearny,  and  all  the  claims  for  its  expenses  remained 
then  and  for  years  afterwards  unsatisfied,  to  the  great 
displeasure  of  both  American  and  native  inhabitants.^ 
Nor  was  the  situation  immediately  improved  by  the 
rapid  and  rather  confusing  increase  of  the  American 
population  during  this  period.  Stevenson's  regiment, 
together  with  some  other  United  States  forces,  arrived 
by  water.  Cooke's  "  Mormon  battalion  "  came  in  from 
New  Mexico  during  the  quarrel  of  the  chiefs.  The  im- 
migration of  1846  was  all  in  by  the  time  the  Donner 
party  had  been  rescued,  in  the  early  months  of  1847 ; 
and  in  July,  1846,  there  had  appeared  unexpectedly  at 
San  Francisco  a  shipload  of  Mormons,  who  had  come 
from  New  York,  by  way  of  the  Sandwich  Islands,  hoping 
to  find  refuge  in  this  foreign  land,  which  they  now  found 
to  be,  after  all,  an  American  land.  The  leader  of  these 
Mormons  was  the  spirited,  energetic,  and  coarse-fibred 
Samuel  Brannan.  The  diversity  of  the  purposes  that 
had  brought  all  these  different  companies  of  people 
hither ;  the  need  of  finding  for  all  alike,  both  soldiers 
and  civilians  (now  that  the  war  in  California  was  done), 
employment  and  support ;  the  uncertainty  of  the  future 
in  a  country  that,  of  course,  could  not  technically  be 
called  ours  before  the  campaigns  in  Mexico  were  done,  — 
all  this,  together  with  the  incapacity  of  the  new-comers 

1  Larkin,  in  a  letter  to  the  State  Department,  June  30,  1847,  in  his 
somewhat  rude  speech,  but  still  with  effect,  sets  forth  the  distracted 
condition  of  the  land  just  after  the  end  of  the  quarrel  of  the  chiefs. 


198  CALIFORNIA. 

themselves  to  understand  perfectly  their  own   delicate 

political  situation,  made  this  whole  period  of  the  inter- 
regnum a  time  of  doubts,  of  problems,  of  complaints, 
and  of  weariness,  as  well,  of  course,  as  a  time  of  most 
important  and  historically  influential  social  life. 

V.     THE    CONQUERORS     AS     RULERS     AND     AS     SUBJECTS; 
QUARRELS,    DISCONTENT,    AND   ASPIRATIONS. 

For  it  is  at  just  such  moments  that  the  American  na- 
ture shows  its  best  qualities.  Amid  all  the  mistakes 
and  the  foolish  words  that  abound  in  such  a  time,  one  is 
surprised  to  note  the  general  and  instinctive  moderation 
of  the  Americans  concerned,  considered  as  a  community. 
They  seem  always  on  the  point  of  trying  to  solve  their 
social  problems  by  violent  and  revolutionary  methods  ; 
and  yet  they  refrain,  not  from  fear,  but  by  virtue  of 
self-control.  The  American  new-comers  in  California, 
under  the  new  condition  of  things,  naturally  took  the 
lead  in  everything.  The  natives,  weary  of  the  recent 
struggles,  and  generally  hopeless  and  sullen,  were  glad 
to  be  let  alone,  and  for  the  time  they  had  little  to  say. 
It  was  the  American  who  now  complained  bitterly  of 
all  the  political,  commercial,  and  social  evils  of  this 
transition  state  ;  who  loudly  called  for  a  stable  govern- 
ment ;  who  sometimes  threatened  to  disregard  United 
States  authority  altogether,  and  go  back  to  Bear  Flag 
conditions ;  and  who,  in  general,  gave  his  soul  free  vent 
in   his   newly  founded   newspapers.^     Yet   it   was   the 

1  These  have  been  already  mentioned :  the  Calif oitiian  (first  pub- 
lished in  Monterey,  and  later  in  San  Francisco),  and  the  California 
Stu7\  published  in  San  Francisco.  The  first  of  these  papers  was  for  a 
pood  while  conducted,  as  we  know,  by  Seniple,  and  was  founded  in 
184G.  The  other,  the  Star,  was  founded  by  Brannan,  at  the  begin- 
iiiug  of  1847,  and,  although  variously  edited,  remained  under  his  in- 


I 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED,  199 


American  who,  in  the  midst  of  his  private  discontent, 
and  in  fact  by  virtue  of  this  discontent,  prepared  the 
way  for  the  birth  of  the  sovereign  State  in  1849. 

For  the  constitution  of  1849  was  not,  as  people  usu- 
ally conceive  it,  the  product  solely  of  the  suddenly 
formed  good  resolutions  of  the  new-coming  gold-seek- 
ers. Had  these  men  of  the  interregnum  not  preceded 
the  gold-seekers,  California  would  have  had  no  state 
constitution  in  1849.  The  constitutional  convention 
was  formed,  as  we  shall  see,  partly  of  men  that  had 
lived  in  the  territory  through  the  interregnum,  and  only 
partly  of  new-comers  that  had  political  ambitions.  In 
settling  the  problems  of  the  convention,  the  men  of  the 
interregnum,  despite  their  general  ignorance  of  the  pol- 
itician's arts,  were  highly  influential,  and  about  many 
matters  their  influence  was  decisive.  To  see,  therefore, 
why  California  was  ready  for  a  constitution  in  1849,  we 
must  consider  the  controversies  of  the  interregnum  itself. 
Otherwise  the  convention  of  1849  seems  like  a  social 
miracle,  as  in  fact  it  has  often  been  treated  by  his- 
torians. 

Technically,  at  the  beginning  of  1847,  the  Depart- 
ment,©! California  was  still  a  bit  of  Mexican  territory, 
under  the  military  rule  of  an  occupying  force  of  our 
own  hostile  army.  The  law  of  nations,  as  the  United 
States  officers  themselves  pointed  out,  gave  the  con- 
queror under  such  circumstances  authority  to  ordain 
such  temporary  laws  and  executive  regulations  as  he 
might  choose.     But  seldom  is  a  conquered  country  in 

fluence  through  1847.  Both  papers  were  interrupted  in  their  publica- 
tion by  the  gold  discovery,  which,  in  the  summer  of  1848,  sent  every- 
body to  tlie  mines.  The  Star  I  have  used  in  the  Bancroft  Library  file; 
the  Cnlifornian  in  the  San  Francisco  Pioneer  Library  file. 


200  CALIFORNIA. 

such  a  condition  as  was  California  in  1847.  For  the 
most  active  and  prominent  of  the  population  were  now 
of  the  nation  of  the  conquerors.  That  Western  set- 
tlers, and  the  Mormons  who  had  sought  for  a  refuge 
in  the  California  wilderness,  should  he  disposed  to  be 
treated  as  Mexicans  that  had  been  conquered  by  an 
American  army  is  not  natural.  But  if  these  settlers 
were  of  the  conquering,  and  not  of  the  conquered, 
party,  and  if  the  country  was  to  be  American,  they 
naturally  wished  to  enjoy  the  benefits  of  the  conquest, 
and  to  be  governed,  after  American  fashion,  by  them- 
selves. Their  wishes  were  for  the  time  inadmissible 
and  even  dangerous  ;  but  their  desire  was,  in  itself  con- 
sidered, a  laudable  one.  Technically,  therefore,  these 
settlers  were  a  conquered  people,  like  all  the  voluntary 
residents  in  any  conquered  province  that  is  under 
military  occupation.  Actually,  however,  they  thought 
themselves  free  as  air,  had  in  many  cases  themselves 
assisted  in  the  conquest  as  members  of  Major  Fre- 
mont's temporary  battalion,  and  felt  a  healthy  contempt 
for  all  military  men,  and  for  that  little  brief  authority 
wherewith  military  men  are  too  commonly  puffed  up. 
Moreover,  the  government,  as  represented  by  General 
Kearny,  had  declined  to  pay  at  present  the  claims  of 
the  men  of  the  California  battalion.  This  led  these 
men,  who  were  now  civilians,  to  feel  no  exceeding  love 
for  the  military  government.  And,  worst  of  all,  they 
lived  from  day  to  day  under  what  they  thought  to  be  a 
very  inconvenient  system,  namely,  the  so-called  Mexican 
law.  This  system  was  indeed  in  an  amusingly  dilapi- 
dated condition  at  that  time  in  the  Department  of  Cali- 
fornia. If  you  take  away  all  of  a  watch  save  the  coiled 
mainspring  and   the  main  axle  with  its  bearings,  the 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  201 

watch  goes  for  a  second  well  enough,  but  you  would  not 
think  it  a  valuable  instrument.  Now  all  that  was  left 
in  California  of  the  Mexican  system  of  law  was  the 
local  alcalde  in  each  centre  of  population.  His  action 
might  be  prompt,  for  the  mainspring  of  his  will  was  in- 
deed  there;  but  how  usefully  he  might  act,  or  how 
thoughtfully,  depended  on  the  conditions  into  which  this 
fragment  of  legal  machinery  might  tnomentarily  be 
brought.  If  something,  say  the  judge's  personal  good 
sense,  held  on  to  the  axle,  the  watch  might  run  dowTi 
more  deliberately  ;  and  if  the  hold  was  just  right,  the 
watch  might  even  in  some  fashion  be  said,  to  keep  time. 
But  the  uncertainty  was  disheartening ;  the  vigor  of  the 
law  was  often  very  unpleasant ;  and  there  was  no  im- 
mediate prospect  of  improvement.  Very  naturally  the 
popular  mind  often  turned  to  thoughts  of  self-govern- 
ment under  a  formulated  constitution. 
^  The  alcalde  was  the  sole  judicial  officer  whose  func- 
tions were  perfectly  f amihar  in  the  daily  life  of  the  na- 
tives of  California.  The  simplicity  of  provincial  litiga- 
tion, the  imperfect  organization  of  society,  the  jelly-like 
unsteadiness  of  the  native  government  of  the  Depart- 
ment, had  long  united  as  causes  to  make  the  ordinary 
native  regard  a  direct  appeal  to  the  alcalde  in  aU  cases 
of  need  as  the  principal,  if  not  the  only,  way  in  which 
a  private  and  non-political  citizen  could,  of  his  own 
choice,  have  to  do  with  the  authorities.  When  the  con- 
quest came,  the  office  of  the  alcalde,  therefore,  alone 
survived  the  downfall  of  the  very  uncertain  govern- 
mental institutions  of  the  country.  But  when  the  al- 
calde survived,  the  Mexican  laws  could  not  be  said  to 
survive  with  him.  Nobody  in  California  had  been  at 
\nuch  trouble  to  learn  or  to  apply  to  daily  life  any  code 


202  CALIFORNIA. 

of  laws  whatsoever.  The  known  functions  of  the  al- 
caldes had  long  been  recognized  by  mere  tradition. 
Beyond  those  known  functions  the  alcaldes  had  pos- 
sessed very  great  practical  freedom  of  individual  judg^ 
ment.  Their  offices  were  not  well  supplied  with  law- 
books. The  conquerors,  in  fact,  found  at  first  practically 
no  books  at  all.  The  alcaldes  appointed  or  elected 
after  the  conquest  followed  the  devices  of  their  own 
hearts.  Not  only  were  they  commonly  judges  both  of 
the  law  and  of  the  evidence,  but  their  position  was  often 
practically  that  of  legislators.  No  wonder  that  their 
arbitrary  powers  aroused  in  the  American  mind  many 
longings  for  self-government.  These  new  alcaldes  were 
often  themselves  Americans,  and,  both  at  San  Francisco 
and  at  Sonoma,  as  well  as  in  one  or  two  other  places, 
they  ruled  communities  that  were  now  almost  wholly 
American.  One  could  appeal  from  their  decisions  to 
the  military  governor,^  but,  practically,  in  respect  of 
most  minor  matters,  one  had  to  submit  to  tliem.  Was 
it  then  much  to  have  helped  conquer  this  vast  land  for 
one's  beloved  free  country,  if  one  found  one's  self  forth- 
with under  an  authority  more  arbitrary  and  unintelli- 
gible than  even  the  native  authority  itself  would  have 
been  ? 

The  longings  thus  aroused  were  somewhat  encouraged 
by  the  promises  that  Sloat,  acting  on  the  original  official 
theory  of  our  relations  to  California,  had  made  to  the  in- 

1  During  most  of  1847  and  1848,  this  was  Colonel  Mason,  successor 
to  General  Kearny,  an  able  and  careful  officer,  whose  personal  char- 
acter is  well  depicted  for  us  in  the  Memoirs  of  General  W.  T.  Sher- 
man, then,  as  lieutenant,  his  adjutant  and  secretary.  See  the  MemoirSf 
vol.  i.  chap.  i.  p.  29,  et  passim.  Mason's  own  oflicial  records,  as  pub. 
lished  in  the  California  Documents  of  1850,  are  historically  very  ii» 
portant. 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  203 

habitants  in  his  proclamation  of  July  7,  1846.  The  in- 
habitants of  California  were  to  enjoy,  as  we  have  seen, 
"  the  privilege  of  choosing  their  own  magistrates  and 
other  officers  for  the  administration  of  justice  among 
themselves,"  and  Sloat,  for  reasons  which  had  now  be- 
come unintelligible  to  his  successors,  had  invited  the 
"  judges,  alcaldes,  and  other  civil  officers  to  retain  their 
offices,  and  to  execute  their  functions  as  heretofore."  Al- 
though the  revolt  and  its  suppression  had  made  Sloat's 
doings  now  seem  very  ancient  history,  the  spirit  of  his 
proclamation  was  still  remembered  by  the  Americans. 
He  had  not  intended  to  come  as  conqueror,  even  to  the 
natives  themselves.  Yet  now  the  very  people  for  whose 
benefit  and  by  whose  help  the  actual  conquest  had  been 
made  could  not  get  for  themselves  nearly  as  much  as 
he  had  freely  offered  to  the  natives.  If  the  letter  of  his 
proclamation  could  not  be  executed,  why  might  not  the 
spirit  of  it  be  regarded  ?  And  yet,  as  the  Americans 
felt,  the  later  military  governors  had  taken  back  nearly 
the  whole  of  these  promises  of  Sloat's,  both  in  letter 
and  in  spirit.  In  several  instances  they  interfered  with 
the  popular  will  concerning  the  choice  of  alcaldes  ;  ^ 
and  they  claimed  yet  more  powers  than  they  used. 

But  this  authority  of  the  military  government  and  of 
the  alcaldes  was  not  only  arbitrary,  but  also,  as  we  have 
suggested,  somewhat  vague,  even  in  the  definitions  that 
were  given  to  the  public  from  official  sources.  If  Sloat's 
proclamation  only  aroused  delusive  hopes,  Stockton,  on 
his  part,  before  he  abandoned  his  position  of  authority, 
had  given  to  these  Americans  a  perplexing  explanation 

1  See  General  "W.  T.  Sherman's  Memoirs,  vol.  i.  p.  30.  Also  see 
the  California  Documents  of  1850  (1st  Sess.  31st  Congr.,  Doc.  17),  pp. 
318,  321,  325,  for  letters  of  Colonel  Mason  bearing  on  this  matter. 


204  CALIFORNIA. 

of  their  position  when  he  had  told  them  that  the  country, 
as  a  province  under  military  occupation  in  time  of  war, 
must  indeed  be  governed  by  a  military  man,  but  that  in 
the  relations  of  the  inhabitants  with  one  another  they 
must  be  governed  by  the  "  former  laws  and  usages  "  of 
the  Department.  Now  that  position  of  Stockton's  was 
obviously  a  perfectly  sound  one  in  theory,  but  unfortu- 
nately, as  we  have  just  seen,  no  American  settlers  knew 
or  could  just  then  find  out  what  the  former  usages  and 
laws  had  been.  The  conquerors  were  ignorant  of  Mex- 
ican law,  even  if  that  had  ever  been  practically  known 
or  applied  in  the  territory.  Litigants,  if  they  were  na- 
tives or  old  inhabitants  of  the  country,  had  a  fashion  of 
swearing  to  usages  that  they  always  interpreted  in  a 
sense  wholly  inconsistent  .with  the  claims  of  the  opposing 
party  ;  and  the  result  produced  in  the  American  settler's 
mind,  when  he  heard  these  strange  "  laws  and  usages  " 
talked  over,  was  a  certain  longing  to  get  back  once  more 
to  the  law  of  nature,  by  which,  as  we  know,  the  Western 
settler  often  used  to  mean  the  constitution  of  the  United 
States.  Doubtless  he  was  yet  more  fixed  in  his  idea 
that  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  is  the  law  of 
nature,  when  he  perceived  that  in  some  respects  it  was 
certainly  very  much  opposed  to  the  nature  of  the  native 
Californian,  whose  former  usages,  whatever  they  might 
have  been,  seemed  to  the  American  settler  to  be  the 
usages  of  a  priest-ridden,  down-trodden,  ignorant,  and 
altogether  unnatural  set  of  creatures,  whom  Providence 
had  created  to  be  replaced  by  the  Americans. 

The  discontent  thus  excited  in  the  settler's  breast 
finds  expression  in  the  discussions  of  the  situation  that 
are  contained  in  the  "California  Star"  for  1847  and 
1848.     I  have  found  the  old  file  very  fascinating  read' 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  205 

Ing,  not  because  it  contains  very  deep  wisdom,  but  be- 
cause it  illustrates  so  well  the  popular  feeling. 

The  "  Star  "  opens  the  conflict,  in  no  very  dignified 
way,  with  its  very  first  number,  January  9,  1847.  Un- 
der its  first  editor,  Mr.  E.  P.  Jones,  the  "  Star "  even 
permitted  one  of  its  correspondents,  Mr.  C.  E.  Pickett, 
later  notorious  in  California,  to  go  so  far  as  to  bring  the 
liberty  of  the  press  into  danger,  by  causing  some  one, 
apparently  Captain  Hull,  who  was  in  charge  at  Yerba 
Buena,  to  threaten  that  tn^military  government  would 
interfere  to  prevent  further  publi^tion,  unless  greater 
prudence  were  shown  in  speaking  of  the  condition  of 
things.  The  time  was  in  fact  a  rather  critical  one. 
In  the  south  at  that  moment  Stockton  and  Major  Fre- 
mont were  busy  with  the  revolt,  and  no  recent  news 
had  been  received  from  them.  General  Kearny's  ar- 
rival in  the  Department  was  still  a  mere  rumor  at  Yerba 
Buena.  Alcalde  Lieutenant  Bartlett  was  in  the  hands 
of  a  party  of  Californians,  who  had  captured  him  dur- 
ing his  absence  from  the  town.  Mr.  Hyde  was  act- 
ing alcalde.  At  such  a  moment  as  this  the  editor  de- 
clares that  everybody  is  already  tired  of  being  subject 
to  the  whims  of  an  alcalde,  and  insists  that  somebody 
shall  at  once  find  somewhere  "  the  written  laws  of  the 
territory,"  which  shall  be  enforced  "  without  regard  to 
the  statements  of  A,  B,  or  C,  in  relation  to  certain  cus- 
toms which  probably  never  existed."  Surely  "  the  writ- 
ten laws  of  the  country,"  he  thinks,  "  can  easily  be  ob- 
tained and  published."  This  is  the  sanguine  speech  of 
an  impatient  man.  Two  years  and  more  later  General 
Riley  found  and  published  what  he  supposed  to  be  these 
written  laws,  and  then  the  people  were  nearly  ready 
to  supersede  them.     On  January  23,  1847,  the  editor, 


206  CALIFORNIA. 

again  taking  up  his  parable,  expresses  strong  objection 
to  the  tendency  of  alcaldes  to  make  laws  and  rules  hav- 
ing the  force  of  law.  The  alcaldes,  he  maintains,  never 
had  such  power  in  the  olden  time  and  ought  not  to  have 
it  now.  "  We  heard  a  few  days  since  that  the  alcalde 
of  Sonoma  had  adopted  the  whole  volume  of  Missouri 
statutes  as  the  law  for  the  government  of  the  people  in 
his  jurisdiction.  If  this  is  allowed,  we  will  have  as 
many  legislatures  in  California  as  we  have  alcaldes  or 
justices  of  the  peace,  and  the  country  will  be  thrown 
into  more  confusion  in  a  short  time  than  ever  existed  in 
any  part  of  the  world  inhabited  by  civilized  men."  But, 
the  editor  goes  on,  if  an  alcalde  cannot  make  a  code, 
then  surely  he  cannot  make  a  single  law,  nor  yet  even  a 
rule  having  the  force  of  law.  His  business  it  is  to  find 
the  law  of  the  territory,  and  to  enforce  it.  Surely  this 
editorial  remonstrance  against  the  omnipotence  of  the 
alcaldes  seems  very  reasonable.  Yet  it  was  almost  vain. 
But,  fair  as  much  of  this  criticism  was,  there  was  an- 
other side  to  the  situation.  The  subsequent  stages  of  the 
controversy  illustrate  this  other  side,  since  they  naturally 
lead  us  to  a  very  important  and  fateful  problem,  which 
here  for  the  first  time  looms  up  before  the  new-coming 
Americans.  One  thing  that  already  made  these  new- 
comers especially  restive  was  the  uncertainty  of  land 
ownership.  It  is  tragic  to  think  of  the  handful  of  set- 
tlers in  1847  hoping  to  get  pretty  soon  some  definitive 
settlement  of  the  terrible  land  question,  which  was  to  cost 
so  much  in  blood  and  treasure  for  a  generation  to  come  ; 
but  at  all  events  one  can  see  how  naturally  an  Amer- 
ican settler's  mind  would  turn  to  popular  self-govern- 
ment as  the  immediate  way  out  of  the  perplexities  con- 
cerning land  that  the  conquest  had  brought  with  it     It 


THE   CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  207 

is  also  plain  that  the  existence  of  a  military  govern- 
ment, uncomfortable  as  such  a  government  then  was,  was 
the  only  guaranty  of  the  native  Californian  population 
against  simple  spoliation  on  the  part  of  the  American 
settlers.  Without  treaty  of  guaranties,  without  time  to 
impress  on  the  American  mind  of  the  new-comers  of 
1845  and  1846  the  nature  of  their  native  customs  and 
of  their  claims,  the  Californian  land-owners  would  have 
had  a  poor  chance  in  a  squatter  legislative  assembly  in 
California  just  then.  That  the  danger  was  no  illusion 
further  facts  shall  forthwith  show. 

On  February  27,  1847,  there  is  an  editorial  article 
in  the  "  Star  "  on  the  civil  government :  it  rejoices  that 
the  government  has  passed  into  such  good  hands  as  those 
of  Shubrick  and  Kearny  ;  and  it  hopes  that  something 
will  be  done  for  the  new  settlers,  in  allowing  them  to 
settle  at  once  on  vacant  lands,  with  the  understanding 
that  these  shall  be  secured  to  them  when  the  territory 
is  ceded.  One  notices  easily  how  dangerous  it  would 
have  been  to  landed  property  in  California  to  let  an 
American  settler  decide  what  then  constituted  vacant 
land. 

On  March  13,  1847,  a  correspondent  of  the  "  Star," 
signing  himself  "  Paisano,"  writes  to  the  editor  a  very 
ably  stated  and  still  a  very  dangerous  letter  on  land 
grants,  to  the  effect  that  the  settlers  coming  in  expected 
their  tracts  of  land,  and  are  sorry  to  find  such  great 
and  indefinite  grants  already  covering  the  face  of  the 
country.  The  indefiniteness  that  he  describes  is  of  the 
sort  so  well  known  to  us  since.  "Those,"  he  says, 
"who  have  recently  emigrated  to  this  country  came 
here  with  the  well-founded  [?]  expectation  that  under 
the  Mexican  laws  they  would  be  enabled  to  secure  a 


208  CALIFORNIA. 

tract  of  land  immediately  upon  their  arrival ;  but  they 
have  been  disappointed ;  and  shall  I  state  the  cause  of 
that  disappointment  ?  Are  the  powers  that  be  prepared 
to  hear  it  ?  .  .  .  It  is  simply  this  :  The  United  States 
have  acquired  possession."  This  is  a  sad  evil,  resulting 
from  so  great  a  good.  The  remedy  is,  according  to 
Paisano,  "  that  the  legislature  be  organized  without  de- 
lay, and  that  immediately  upon  their  organization  they 
proceed  to  the  enactment  of  a  law  upon  the  subject. 
Let  this  law  provide  that  every  man  shall  be  entitled  to 
a  certain  quantity  of  government  land  ;  and  let  it  further 
provide  that,  in  order  to  acquire  a  legal  right  to  the 
possession  of  the  same,  it  shall  be  necessary  for  the 
claimant  to  have  his  Jands  recorded  and  surveyed.  A 
law  of  this  kind,  I  apprehejid^-Brould  remove  at  once  the 
chief  cause  of  discontent  among  the  people.  But  it  will 
very  likely  be  urged  by  those  who  take  a  more  limited 
view  of  our  legislative  powers  that  they_wheii_,organized, 
will  have  no  authority  to  interfere  in  anyjmanner  with 
the  disposition  of  the  public  lands;  yet  it  will  be  ob- 
served that  nothing  more  is  here  suggested  than  to  give 
to  each  individual  a  possessory  right  to  a_  certain  tract 
of  land,  upon  certain  conditions.  But  this  suggestion 
is  not  made  because  it  is  supposed  that  the  legislature 
will  lack  the  power  to  go  farther,  for,  in  my  opinion,  this 
legislature,  when  organized,  may  enact  all  laws  which 
the  public  exigence  may  require^." 

The  author  of  this  letter  I  am  able  to  identify  as 
K  W.  Hastings,  a  lawyer,  later  a  member  of  the  con- 
stitutional convention,  an  active  man,  and  a.n  emigrant 
leader,  and  prominent  in  emigrant  affairs.  Hastings  is 
to  be  praised  for  what  he  earlier  and  later  accomplished 
of  good.     But  this  particular  scheme  of  his  means  op 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  209 

the  face  of  it  spoliation.  This  man,  who  "hopes,"  as 
he  says  about  this  time,  in  an  advertisement  of  his  law 
office,  to  acquire  some  day  soon  a  knowledge  of  the 
Mexican  land  law  and  its  application  to  Californian 
land,  now,  even  while  he  admits  that  the  face  of  the 
country  seems  covered  with  land  grants  in  the  very 
parts  where  men  want. ta..^fittle,  stili:  coolly  proposes  to 
settle  the  matter,  not  by  the  courts,  but  by  the  action  of 
a  legislature  that  would  be  under  the  control  of  the  set- 
tlers themselves.  The  very  grievance  that  he  states  is 
so  stated  as  to  show  too  clearly  the  remedy  that  he  has 
in  mind :  Let  the  settlers,  he  says,  "  apply  wherever 
they  may,  and  to  whomsoever  they  may,  and  the  result 
is  invariably  the  same  :  they  are  repulsed  with  an  in- 
dignant 'This  is  all  mine.'  This  all-embracing  occu- 
pant, after  the  very  expressive  and  exclusive  declama- 
tion here  alluded  to,  goes  on  to  describe  his  unbounded 
premises.  '  That  mountain,'  says  he,  '  on  the  east  is 
the  southeast  corner  of  my  farm,  and  that  timbered 
?x  country  which  you  see  in  the  distance  is  my  northwest 
A  corner ;  the  other  corners  of  my  farm  are  rather  in- 
~rdefinitely  marked  at  present,  but  I  shall  endeavor  to 
have  the  rope  applied  to  them  also,  as  soon  as  the  al- 
calde is  at  leisure.'  "  Well,  if  this  indefinite  state  of 
affairs  is  the~grievance,  - —  and  it  is  plainly  a  grievance, — 
what  shall  be  thought  of  a  man  whose  plan  for  settling 
the  difficulty  is  not  first  of  all  a  patient  judicial  exam- 
ination of  the  traditions,  usages,  laws,  and  grants  under 
which  these  claims  are  made,  but  the  calling  of  a  land- 
hungry  legislative  assembly  of  the  intruders  themselves,^ 
to  apply  "the  precedents  oi.the  unoccupied  Oregon  wil- 
derness to  the  settlement  of  the  ancient  problems  of 
California  land  law?  As  for" the- facts,  Mr.  Hastings 
14 


210  CALIFORNIA. 

makes  the  common  settlers'  blunder,  found  also  in  Ide's 
proclamation  in  the  spring  of  1846,  according  to  which 
the  Mexican  government  had  somehow  guarantied  to 
every  American  settler  a  tract  of  land  immediately  upon 
his  arrival.  This  was  a  very  bad  blunder,  since  in  fact 
every  foreign  settler  upon  Mexican  territory  who  brought 
with  him  no  passport  was  at  that  time,  from  the  mo- 
ment he  crossed  the  boundary,  a  violator  of  Mexican 
law,  and  legally  subject  to  expulsion  from  the  territory. 
There  had  been,  indeed,  for  years  no  enforcement  of  this 
law  in  California  ;  but  this  act  of  grace,  or  of  neglect, 
had  been  absurdly  interpreted  by  the  American  intrud- 
ers, through  some  curious  inner  transformation,  as  an 
official  guaranty  of  land  grants  to  all  of  them.  Finally, 
as  to  practical  judgment,  Hastings'  scheme  is  of  the 
wildest  possible  character,  in  view  of  the  endless  litiga- 
tion that  such  arbitrary  acts  of  a  self-constituted  terri- 
torial legislature  in  California  must  ultimately  have 
brought  about.  We  have  suffered  many  things  of  land 
in  California ;  but  how  much  more  should  we  not  have 
been  forced  to  endure  if  Mr.  Hastings'  territorial  legis- 
lature had  begun  to  tear  down  and  to  build  up  in  1847  ? 
Thus,  then,  one  may  see  something  of  the  other  side 
of  this  question  of  government.  To  the  settlers'  rights 
must  be  opposed  the  need  of  patience.  I  have  dwelt  at 
length  on  this  matter  of  Mr.  Hastings'  discussion  of  the 
land  question,  because  it  shows  the  state  of  opinion  con- 
cerning governmental  needs  and  prospects  in  California 
at  that  time,  and  helps  us  to  trace  the  steps  that  led  to 
the  constitutional  convention  of  1849.  The  general  dis- 
satisfaction that  existed  among  the  American  settlers, 
the  reasons  for  this  dissatisfaction,  the  plans  that  were 
proposed  as  a  solution,  the  considerations  pro  and  con 


THE   CONQUEST   COMPLETED.  211 


concerning  these  questions  of  settlers'  rights,  are  all  im- 
portant if  one  wants  to  understand  the  fine  political 
talent  that  was  soon  to  shine  out  so  well  in  the  actual 
political  organization  of  the  State.^ 

These  discontents  were-as- embarrassing  to  the  really 
well-meaning  military  government  as  they  were  valua- 
ble in  organizing  the  popular  sentiment,  and  in  prepar- 
ing the  way  for  a  state  government.  Mason  himself 
was  doubtless  as  just  under  such  conditions  as  he  could 
be.  His  influence  was  strictly  conservative.  He  tried, 
for  instance/  to  protect  land-owners  from  squatters,  and 
accepted  any  reasonable  prima  facie  evidence  of  legal 
ownership  as  sufficient  for  his  temporary  purposes.^  He 
could  not  grant  what  the  people  desired  in  the  way  of 
self-government,  for  of  course  he  now  had  no  authority 
to  do  more  than  to  govern  the  land  as  a  military  con- 
queror. For  since  the  conquest  had  actually  involved 
force,  the  government,  on  hearing  of  the  facts  through 
Ihe  official  reports,  had  now  instructed  accordingly,^  and 
-there  was  no  thought  of  carrying  out  anything  corre- 
sponding to  the  original  cabinet  plan  about  California. 
The  land  must  wait  until  a  treaty  of  peace,  before  Con- 
gress could  do  anything  for  it.     Meanwhile  it  was  to  be 

1  The  Californian  is  not  behind  its  rival  in  any  of  these  complaints 
about  the  situation,  although  its  opening  numbers  had  given  a  prom- 
ise of  a  strictly  pacific  editorial  policy.  For  instance,  on  June  5,  1847, 
it  complains  bitterly  of  "military  despotism;"  on  June  12  it  ex- 
presses freely  the  general  discontent  with  the  United  States  govern- 
ment in  view  of  the  non-payment  of  the  California  battalion  claims; 
on  July  17  complaints  are  renewed  of  the  inefficiency  of  the  military 
government ;  and  on  October  27  the  editor  proclaims  that  alcalde  gov- 
ernment is  far  worse  than  direct  martial  law.  Desires  for  a  territorial 
legislature  are  renewed  and  ably  defended  January  5,  1848,  and  again 
in  the  summer  of  that  j'ear.  ^,^' 

2  See  the  Cal.  Doc.  as  cited  above,  pp.  322,  324,  and  elsewhere. 
8  See  Cal.  Doc.  cited,  pp.  244-246. 


212  CALIFORNIA. 

regarded  as  Mexican  territory  in  our  military  possesh 
sion.     Mason's  duty  was  thus  clear. 

But  his  position,  nevertheless,  was  delicate.  The 
changing  instructions  that  were  received  from  Washing- 
ton concerning  a  war  tariff  in  California  did  not  tend 
to  make  people  more  content  with  the  government,  but 
deeply  displeased  both  the  merchants  and  the  consum- 
ers. The  force  at  Mason's  command  was  furthermore 
limited,  and  the  state  of  the  country  was  politically  dis- 
heartening :  conquerors  and  conquered  mixed  confusedly 
together,  discontent  either  loudly  expressed  or  sullenly 
half  concealed,  and  numberless  social  and  legal  prob- 
lems demanding  immediate  solution,  —  problems  about 
solemnizing  marriages,  about  giving  divorces,  about  the 
treatment  of  the  Indians,  about  the  titles  to  town  lots, 
about  everything.^  Mason  was  a  good  executive,  but 
he  would  have  been  a  great  statesman  also  if  he  had 
been  adequate  to  all  this  work. 

Vexatious  as  all  these  things  were,  they  were  yet  very , 
valuable  events  for  the  future  commonwealth.  For  the 
people  learned  something  of  the  real  problems  that  the 
new  social  order  would  have  to  meet,  and,  in  thus  learn- 
ing, these  American  new-comers,  so  to  speak,  aged  rap- 
idly in  their  ideas  and  plans.  By  1849,  as  we  shall  see, 
they  had  become  strict  conservatives  themselves,  as 
against  the  hordes  of  the  new-comers  of  the  great  year. 

1  InCal.  Doc.  as  cited,  p.  338,  is  a  letter  from  Mason  to  the  adjutant 
general  at  Washington,  dated  September  18,  1847,  narrating  the  dis- 
charge of  the  Mormon  battalion  and  the  present  difficulties  of  Mason's 
position,  with  "but  two  companies  of  regular  troops,  both  of  which 
are  rapidiy  being  diminished  in  strength  by  deaths  and  desertions." 
"All  other  troops,"  he  says,  "must  claim  and  will  receive  their  dis- 
charge the  moment  peace  with  Mexico  is  declared."  As  for  the  prob- 
lems  before  Mason,  their  variety  may  be  judged  by  reading  letteri 
Sjioc.  cit.),  pp.  335,  344,  349,  355. 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  213 

And  their  conservatism  it  was  that  made  a  sound  consti- 
tution possible.  Had  there  been  no  troubles  in  1847 
and  1848,  there  would  have  been  much  less  order  pos- 
sible in  the  early  years  of  the  state  government,  and  in 
1849  there  would  have  been  no  constitution  made  at  all. 

VI.     THE    BEGINNINGS    OF    THE    AMERICAN    SAN    FRAN- 
CISCO. 

Material  prosperity  slowly  but  surely  grew  in  the 
active  little  community  in  the  very  midst  of  all  this 
political  confusion.  The  centre  of  the  growth  was  al- 
ready at  the  village  of  San  Francisco.  To  the  little 
cluster  of  houses  that  within  about  ten  years  had  grown 
up  at  Yerba  Buena  cove  was  given,  early  in  1847,  by 
the  consent  of  all  concerned,  and  by  the  decree  of  the 
alcalde,  the  name  that  was  its  proper  due,  the  historic 
name  of  San  Francisco,  which  the  bay,  the  mission,  the 
^presidio,  and  the  district  had  all  long  since  borne. 
— ^he  immediate  occasion  of  the  change  of  name  from 
^^erba  Buena  to  San  Francisco  was  the  projection  and 
beginning  of  a  new  town  called  Francesca  on  the  north- 
ern shore  of  the  bay,  a  town  which  its  projectors,  Sem- 
ple  and  Larkin,  intended  to  make  a  commercial  centre 
for  this  future  great  country  of  California.  The  Yerba 
Buena  people  were  clever  enough  to  see  the  possible  im- 
portance of  identifying  in  name  their  own  town  with 
the  great  bay,  and  the  dangerous  advantage  of  the  name 
Francesca  in  comparison  with  their  own  present  local 
name.  They  had  the  first  and  best  right  to  the  name 
San  Francisco,  and  were  not  slow  to  adopt  it.  They 
were,  in  fact,  within  the  boundaries  of  the  then  legally 
existent  pueblo  of  San  Francisco.^  The  name  of  the 
projected  Francesca  was  hereupon  changed  to  Benicia. 
1  See,  on  the  matter  of  the  name,  the  AnnaU  of  San,  Francisco,  pp 


214  CALIFORNIA. 

In  March,  1847,  General  Kearny  had  authorized  by 
proclamation  the  sale  of  the  beach  and  water-lots  on  the 
east  front  of  San  Francisco,  and  the  alcalde,  then  Ed- 
win Bryant  (the  author  of  "  Three  Years  in  California  "), 
gave  notice  of  the  sale  on  March  16.  Kearny  had,  of 
course,  no  real  legal  authority  in  the  matter,  and  the 
proclamation  was  issued,  in  response  to  the  request  of 
the  people  of  San  Francisco,  chiefly  in  order  to  give  the 
sale  a  show  of  authority.^  The  sale  itself  seemed  to 
the  people  a  necessity  for  the  growth  of  their  town,  and 
the  titles  thus  conveyed,  while  in  later  years  giving  rise 
to  no  small  question  and  difficulty,  were  finally  recog- 
nized, through  both  legislative  and  judicial  action. 
Further  sales  of  town  lots  and  the  new  O'Farrell  sur- 
vey of  the  town  streets  marked  yet  more  steps  in  the 
progress  of  the  settlement  during  the  summer  and  au- 
tumn of  1847.  By  the  census  of  August,  1847,  there 
were  459  persons  in  the  village,  which  still  excluded 
from  its  limits  the  mission  settlement.  Of  these  51 
were  under  five  years  of  age,  and  32  more  between  five 
and  ten.  Of  the  whole  number  138  were  girls  op 
women.^ 

The  drawings  of  the  village  and  of  its  surroundings, 
which  are  preserved  to  us  from  that  early  day,  have  no 
small  interest  to  any  one  who  knows  the  present  great 

178,  188;  J.  S.  Hittell's  History  of  San  Francisco,  pp.  110,  111.  The 
legal  existence  of  the  pueblo  at  this  time  was,  as  is  well  known,  not 
proven  to  the  satisfaction  of  our  courts  until  long  afterwards ;  but  the 
application  of  the  name  to  the  bay,  presidio,  mission,  district,  was  an 
old  story. 

»  See  the  Annals,  as  cited,  p.  181 ;  Hittell's  History  of  San  Fran- 
ciscoy  p.  113;  Cal.  Documents  of  1850  (as  cited),  pp.  291,  302,  333. 

2  Annals,  p.  176.  On  the  further  sales  of  lots  and  O'Farrell's  sup. 
vey,  see  Annals,  pp.  182,  sqq.,  and  Hittell's  Hittory  of  San  Francisco^ 
»p.  114,  sqq. 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  215 

city,  and  suggest  many  comparisons,  as  well  as  many  i^b* 
flections  on  what  might  have  been.  One  finds  wood- 
cuts from  some  of  these  drawings  in  the  "Annals-" 
The  little  cluster  of  houses  stood  for  the  most  part  a 
short  distance  back  from  the  low,  curving  beach  of  Yerbei 
Buena  cove,  a  cove  very  early  filled  up  by  the  busiest 
portions  of  the  city  of  the  gold  period.  Telegraph  Hill 
loomed  up  close  above  the  village  on  the  north  side. 
Southward  the  distance  was  greater,  across  the  lowlands 
to  Rincon  Hill,  and  to  the  point  that  in  that  direction 
bounded  the  cove.  Going  westward  from  the  beach, 
one  almost  immediately  began  to  ascend  those  steep  hillst 
over  which,  in  the  present  day,  the  characteristic  cabl© 
street-railroads  of  San  Francisco  carry  numberless  pas- 
sengers towards  the  now  fine  dwelling-house  regions  ot 
the  "  western  addition  "  beyond  the  hills.  These  stecjj 
hills,  then  covered  with  the  low  shrubbery  of  the  penin- 
^^  sula,  are  now  at  one  point  crowned  by  those  tediouslj^ 
^;^ast  "palaces"  of  certain  millionnaires,  which  a'trV^ 
San  Franciscan  points  out  from  the  bay  to  the  new 
comer  on  the  ferry-boats,  as  among  the  most  notewo^ 
thy  landmarks  of  the  place. 

The  peninsular  region  in  which  this  village  of  184? 
lay  was  a  sad  and  desolate  one,  save  for  the  glorious 
outlook  northward  and  eastward,  to  be  gained  from  the 
hills  above  the  village,  and  save  also  for  the  ruggedly 
graceful  outlines  of  these  hills  themselves.  In  the  hills 
lay,  in  fact,  a  great  opportunity  for  the  possible  future 
building  of  a  truly  stately  city.  They  together  formed 
several  fine  amphitheatres  between  their  curving  sides, 
they  presented  noble  contours  to  the  traveler  approach- 
ing by  the  bay,  and  they  left  enough  level  ground  at 
tiieir  bases  to  make,  with  the  addition  of  land  tc  be 


216  CALIFORNIA. 

formed  by  the  inevitable  filling  in  of  the  cove  (and,  in 
time,  of  Mission  Bay  also),  ample  room  for  the  necessi- 
ties of  the  commercial  life  of  the  city.  But  otherwise 
the  place,  through  all  the  dry  season  of  the  year,  was  one 
of  the  most  windy,  barren,  and  dismal  spots  that  could 
well  have  been  found  in  a  temperate  climate.  Over 
the  stately  and  graceful  Twin  Peaks,  beyond  the  mis- 
sion, the  gray  ocean  fog,  then  as  now,  slowly  crept  east- 
ward, in  the  chilly  summer  afternoons,  towards  the  shiv- 
ering town,  while  the  sharp  sand  was  driven  by  the  brisk 
wind,  both  along  the  shores  and  amid  the  gloomy  low 
sand  hills  to  the  southwest,  towards  the  mission ;  and 
while  one  could  see  from  any  hill  the  white-capped  waves 
gleaming  all  over  the  great  bay  to  the  north  and  east. 
The  almost  treeless  peninsula,  at  such  times,  was  a  place 
to  which  anchorites  might  well  have  resorted  to  medi- 
tate in  windy  solitude  upon  the  woes  and  sins  of  an  ac- 
cursed world,  amid  this  monotonous  wilderness  of  low 
shrubbery,  of  drifting  sand,  and  of  steep  hill-slopes. 
Even  now,  with  all  the  cheerful  noise  and  strife  of  an 
exceptionally  active  city  to  distract  one's  mind  from 
gloomy  topics,  a  summer  afternoon  out-of-doors,  in  San 
Francisco,  is  a  bitter  penance  to  every  one  but  the  most 
devoted  of  San  Franciscans.  And,  meanwhile,  nearly 
all  the  fine  opportunities  that  the  hill-contours  offered, 
to  compensate  by  dignity  of  aspect  for  the  dreariness  of 
the  summers,  have  been  wasted,  and  are  now  gone  for- 
ever, unless  indeed  the  city  should  some  day  undergo  a 
revolutionary  change  not  only  of  architecture,  but  also  of 
plan.  It  is  characteristic  of  the  progressive  American 
that,  in  most  parts  of  the  East,  and  throughout  the  great 
West,  at  least  in  all  those  regions  where  there  are  either 
bluffs  or  hills  to  be  dealt  with,  he  destroys  a  landscape 


c^ 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  217 

in  just  so  far  as  he  builds  a  city.  Well-planned  cities, 
however,  would  ennoble  the  landscapes.  At  San  Fran- 
cisco there  was  but  one  great  natural  beauty  in  the  situa- 
tion of  the  city  that  the  builders  could  ruin.  They  could 
not  ruin  the  wonderful  outlook  eastward  and  north- 
ward from  the  hills,  for  that  was  beyond  their  reach ; 
and  they  could  not  ruin  either  many  trees  or  streams  at 
the  point  where  they  built  their  city,  for  there  were  few 
to  ruin.  But  they  could  in  large  measure  ruin  their  hill- 
contours,  and  the  beautifully  curving  amphitheatres  that 
these  bounded.  Tliis,  of  course,  they  did,  and  so  for  all 
time  they  have  defaced  what  might  have  been  the  foun- 
dation for  a  most  stately  and  imposing  city.  As  one 
now  comes  to  San  Francisco  by  water,  one  begins  to  see 
at  once  what  was  done  with  the  rugged  dignity  of  the 
sombre  hills  that  surrounded  the  old  village  of  1847. 
These  hills  have  been  outraged  and  insulted  with  mani- 
fold cruelties :  never-finished  grading  undertakings  have 
uselessly  torn  them  in  some  places  ;  in  others  one  has 
given  them  over  to  dirty  and  degraded  little  houses ;  and 
where  the  houses  are  either  truly  excellent,  or  only  pre- 
tentiously grand,  the  perfectly  straight  streets  disfigure, 
as  with  long  cruel  stripes,  the  sturdy  forms  of  the  noble 
hills.  For  these  streets  pass  over  the  hills  in  merci' 
lessly  undeviating  parallel  lines,  and  by  the  sides  of  the 
streets,  on  the  breathlessly  steep  ascents,  the  wooden 
houses  seem  to  be  perpetually  toppling,  while  they  still 
find  some  mysterious  way  of  holding  their  desperate 
places  on  the  slopes,  and  of  keeping  still  in  their  stiff 
military  array.  The  village  of  1847,  from  the  moment 
it  began  to  grow,  planned  an  impious  assault  upon  the 
hills  by  means  of  these  straight  streets,  and  the  life  of 
the  town  was  for  years  a  savage  struggle  with  the  land- 


218  CALIFORNIA. 

scape.  Nor  has  the  struggle  ever  ceased.  Even  now,  if 
one  walks  out  a  little  beyond  the  mission,  one  finds  very- 
much  such  a  region  as  that  in  which  the  Yerba  Buena 
village  was  first  set  down  :  desolate,  wind-swept  hills, 
with  fine  contours,  with  a  magnificent  outlook  tpwards 
the  bay,  and  with  often  beautifully  outlined  amphithe- 
atre valleys  between  adjacent  hills.  Into  this  region 
the  southwestern  part  of  the  city  is  now  growing,  with 
just  the  same  cruel  prejudices  about  straight  streets, 
with  just  the  same  determination  to  hack  and  hew,  to 
bruise  and  to  torture  these  hill-contours,  until  the  city 
shall  become  in  this  region  also  what  in  its  older  parts 
it  now  inevitably  seems  at  first  sight  from  the  bay :  a 
planless  wreck  of  a  city,  instead  of  what  those  who 
study  its  map  suppose  it  to  be,  namely,  a  very  well  laid 
out  and  well  arranged  city.  For  the  geometrical  sim- 
plicity of  the  plan  on  paper  means  brutal  confusion  of 
aspect  when  applied  to  these  hills.  In  the  "  western  ad- 
dition "  one  finds  to-day  very  many  beautiful  features ; 
but  all  the  rest  of  the  city  is,  as  to  general  plan,  a  lost 
opportunity. 

Such  fashions  of  building  cities  are  characteristic  of 
our  people  everywhere.  Commercial  necessity,  it  will 
be  said,  built  San  Francisco,  and  left  no  time  for  seek- 
ing beauty.  But,  as  the  ancient  writer  said  to  those 
who  complained  of  the  tedious  preparation  required  in 
studying  an  art,  "  we  ourselves  make  our  own  time 
short."  If  the  San  Franciscan  had  never  wasted  time 
or  money  on  wholly  useless  mutilation  of  his  hills,  or  on 
wholly  worthless  enterprises  in  street-grading,  his  spare 
time  for  improving  the  general  aspect  of  his  city  would 
have  been  longer.  And  the  great  art  of  at  least  letting 
ftlone  such  portions  of  the  land  about  or  in  a  town  as 


THE   CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  219 

one  does  not  actually  need,  until  such  time  as  one  shall 
be  able  to  beautify  them,  is  an  art  unknown  to  us  Amer- 
icans, who  can,  slowly  indeed,  and  with  many  mistakes 
and  troubles,  build  at  length  one  work  of  art,  and  one 
only,  namely,  a  well-constituted  State,  and  who  ruth- 
lessly deface  nearly  every  other  object  that  comes  in  our 
way.  For  the  ugliness  of  most  of  our  cities  we  bear  a 
national  responsibility.  San  Francisco  is  far  better  than 
many. 

The  village  from  which  all  this  was  to  grow  lived,  in 
1847,  a  life  not  only  of  considerable  commercial  activity 
and  of  many  political  anxieties,  but  also  of  much  private 
joviality  and  good-fellowship.  The  people  had  their 
social  gatherings,  their  balls,  their  dinners,  and  their 
suppers,  and  already  tasted  the  social  freedom  charac- 
teristic of  California  life.  The  4th  of  July,  and  also 
the  7th,  were  celebrated  in  1847,  the  second  of  the  two 
anniversaries  commemorating,  of  course,  the  raising  of 
the  flag.  Nor  were  the  inhabitants  altogether  careless 
about  a  school  for  their  children.  The  subject  was  agi- 
tated in  1847,  and  a  public  school  was  actually  opened 
in  April,  1848.  The  general  commercial  and  agricul- 
tural development  of  the  country  was  meanwhile  the  oK 
ject  of  much  interest  at  San  Francisco.  The  energetio 
Sam  Brannan  already  knew  no  limit  to  his  hopes  or  to 
his  plans.  A  number  of  the  "  Star,"  prepared  under  his 
direction  in  March,  1848,  for  circulation  in  the  East, 
contained  an  article  by  Dr.  Fourgeaud  on  the  resources 
of  California,  —  an  article  which  reads  like  a  prophecy 
of  what  would  be  said  many  years  later,  after  the  gold 
excitement  had  passed  by,  and  when  the  agricultural 
development  of  the  State  had  fairly  begun.^     The  aiv 

1  See  Hittell's  History  of  San  Francisco,  p.  97.     This  number  of 


^^ 


220  CALIFORNIA. 

tide  dwells  on  the  certainty  of  a  great  agricultural  fu- 
ture for  the  territory,  and  naturally  makes  agriculture 
the  mainstay  of  future  prosperity,  remarking  meanwhile 
that  the  mineral  wealth  of  the  territory  is  believed  to  be 
also  great.  By  the  middle  of  March,  1848,  the  little 
village  had  a  population  of  above  eight  hundred,  and 
contained  about  two  hundred  houses.^  And  now  came 
the  great  news. 

VII.     GOLD,    NEW-COMERS,   AND   ILLUSIONS. 

That  gold  had  been  discovered  some  time  before  the 
importance  of  the  discovery  was  generally  understood, 
even  in  California  ;  that  until  April,  1848,  little  excite- 
ment was  occasioned  in  towns  on  the  coast ;  that  then 
the  excitement  about  the  gold  rapidly  grew,  and  soon 
almost  depopulated  the  villages ;  and  that  thereafter  the 
summer  of  1848  was  full  of  a  new  and  infinitely  won- 
drous life,  amid  adventures,  good  fortune,  and  hard- 
ships, —  all  this  every  reader  of  California  annals  knows 
without  long  explanation.  And  every  such  reader 
knows,  too,  the  tale,  so  simple  in  its  main  incident,  so 
confused,  contradictory,  and  tangled  in  its  details,  about 
the  first  discovery  of  the  gold.  How  Sutter's  mill,  near 
the  later  town  of  Coloma,  was  just  being  prepared  in 
the  wilderness  for  the  work  of  sawing  the  wood  to  be 
brought  from  the  mountain  forests  near  by;  how,  in 
January,  1848,  Marshall,  as  superintendent  of  the  work, 
tried  to  enlarge  his  tail-race  by  little  successive  artificial 
freshets  of  water  sent  down  through  the  race ;  how  the 

the  Star  is  not  infrequently  to  be  met  with  now  in  Eastern  libraries, 
and  ia  in  fact  the  only  number  of  this  paper  that  is  at  all  common  in 
eollections  of  California  material. 
1  Annals,  p.  200. 


2K 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  221 

water  washed  out  into  sight  a  few  gold-particles  along 
the  banks  of  the  race ;  and  how  Marshall  found  them 
and  tested  them,  —  all  this  story  is  the  property  of  every 
pioneer.  How,  furthermore,  Marshall  took  the  news  to 
the  incredulous  Sutter, ,  and  forced  him  to  believe  it ; 
how  the  workmen  at  the  mill  came  to  know,  in  their 
turn,  of  the  gold  ;  how  various  efforts  were  made  to 
keep  the  matter  secret  from  all  but  a  few,  and  how  the 
efforts  failed,  —  these,  indeed,  are  details  about  which 
the  traditions  somewhat  differ,  but  these  are  things  of 
only  antiquarian  interest.  Marshall  himself,  who  got 
such  a  factitious  fame  by  the  event  that  made  him  rather 
than  another  the  purely  accidental  discoverer  of  that 
which  he  had  taken  no  pains  to  find,  and  which  some- 
body must  inevitably  have  found  very  soon,  —  Mar- 
shall, poor  fellow,  won,  besides  fame,  little  but  sorrow 
rom  the  accident,  and  his  recent  death  has  left  the  nu- 
merous writers  of  obituary  biographies  with  absolutely 
nothing  to  say  about  him,  save  that  he  did  succeed  in 
picking  up  the  gold-grains,  and  that  he  did  prove  him- 
self thenceforth  to  be  an  utterly  incapable  man.  For 
the  visionary  Sutter,  too,  the  discovery  was  to  be  a  ca- 
lamity, although,  again,  largely  by  his  own  fault.  But 
at  the  moment,  the  discovery,  once  appreciated,  seemed 
to  all  concerned  as  wonderful  and  good  a  thing  for  their 
personal  prospects  as  it  actually  was  for  the  fortuned 
of  California,  of  the  United  States,  and  of  the  world. 
These  sanguine  early  discoverers  could  not  yet  know 
that  great  gold  mines,  while  they  vastly  benefit  the 
world,  are,  for  the  communities  that  possess  them,  tre- 
mendously severe  moral  tests,  and,  for  by  far  the  most 
of  the  individual  miners,  inevitable  ruin. 

We  are,  in  fact,  now  and  henceforth  to  deal  with  a 


-^ 


222  CALIFORNIA. 

California  that  was  to  be  morally  and  socially  tried  as  no 
other  American  community  ever  has  been  tried,  and  that 
was  to  show  as  we  Americans  have  not  elsewhere  so  com- 
pletely and  in  so  narrow  compass  shown  both  the  true 
nobility  and  the  true  weakness  of  our  national  character. 
All  our  brutal  passions  were  here  to  have  full  sweep,  and 
all  our  moral  strength,  all  our  courage,  our  patience,  our 
docility,  and  our  social  skill  were  to  contend  with  these 
our  passions.  Whoever  wants  merely  an  eulogistic  story 
of  the  glories  of  the  pioneer  life  of  California  must  not 
look  for  it  in  history,  and  whoever  is  too  tender-souled 
to  see  any  moral  beauty  or  significance  in  events  that 
involve  much  foolishness,  drunkenness,  brutality,  and 
lust  must  find  his  innocent  interests  satisfied  elsewhere. 
But  whoever  knows  that  the  struggle  for  the  best  things 
of  man  is  a  struggle  against  the  basest  passions  of  man, 
and  that  every  significant  historical  process  is  full  of 
such  struggles,  is  ready  to  understand  the  true  interest 
of  scenes  amid  which  civilization  sometimes  seemed  to 
have  lapsed  into  semi-barbarism.  It  is,  of  course,  im- 
possible to  read  this  history  without  occasionally  feeling 
a  natural  horror  of  the  crimes  that  for  a  while  were 
so  frequent ;  but  one's  horror  is  itself  a  weakness,  and 
must  give  way,  for  the  most  part,  to  a  simple  realistic 
.,^  delight  in  the  jovial  fortitude  wherewith  this  new  com- 
munity bore  the  worst  consequences  of  its  own  sins,  and, 
after  a  remarkably  short  time,  learned  to  forsake  the 
most  serious  of  them.  Early  California  history  is  not 
for  babes,  nor  for  sentimentalists ;  but  its  manly  wick- 
edness is  full  of  the  strength  that,  on  occasion,  freely 
converts  itself  into  an  admirable  moral  heroism. 

For  the  moment,  the  gold  excitement  simply  deprived 
tihe  settlements  outside  of  the  gold-mines  of  all  signifi- 


= 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.    "  223 

cance.  In  the  course  of  May  and  June  nearly  every- 
body went  to  the  mines,  —  from  San  Francisco,  from 
Monterey,  from  San  Jose,  from  all  the  settlements.^ 
The  military  officers  alone  resisted  the  temptation  to 
abandon  present  engagements  for  the  new  work  of  min- 
ing, and  the  officers  themselves  could  to  some  degree 
satisfy  their  natural  curiosity  in  a  proper  way  by  visiting 
the  mines  for  official  purposes.  So  it  was  when  Colonel 
Mason,  duly  escorted,  examined  the  mining  region  in 
June  and  July  of  1848,  and  gathered  facts  for  the  fa^ 
mous  letter  of  August  17,  which,  when  it  became  known 
in  the  East,  formed,  with  Larkin's  letters  to  Buchanan 
n  the  same  topic,  the  official  and  authentic  basis  for 
^^H3ie  great  California  gold  excitement  in  the  East  during 
the  following  winter  and  spring.^  The  skilled  miners 
in  the  territory  were  very  few,  but  men  happened  to 
begin  with  the  discovery  of  certain  very  rich  placers. 
Men  like  Marshall  and  Sutter,  or  like  the  well-known 
settler  Sinclair,  or  like  John  M.  Murphy  of  San  Jose, 
employed,  or  attempted,  with  greater  or  less  success, 
to  employ,  Indians  to  do  the  work  of  gold-mining  for 
them,  and  altogether  the  individual  strokes  of  good 
fortune  in  the  summer  of  1848  were  very  numerous. 
In  the  mines,  meanwhile,  were  many  deserting  soldiers 
and  sailors,  and  the  executive  arm  of  the  provisional 
government  grew  daily  weaker.     The  miners  were,  in- 

1  See  the  Annals,  pp.  202,  sqq. ;  Hall's  History  of  San  Jose,  pp. 
190,  sqq. ;  Tuthill's  History  of  California,  chap,  xviii. ;  Colton's 
Three  Years,  chaps,  xviii.  and  xix.;  and  General  Sherman's  Memoirs, 
vol.  i.  pp.  40,  sqq.,  for  accounts  of  the  immediate  effects  of  the  first 
gold  excitement.  Other  authorities  could  easily  be  given.  The  news- 
papers, indeed,  soon  fail  us,  for  the  excitement  stopped  both  of  them. 

2  See  Mason's  letter  in  the  Cal.  Doc.  of  1850,  pp.  528,  sqq.,  and  the 
same  in  the  beginning  of  Foster's  Gold  Mines  of  California  (New 
York,  1849),  and  Larkin's  letters  in  Foster,  pp.  17,  sqq. 


■f 


\ 


224  ^  CALIFORNIA. 

deed,  already  declared  on  good  authority  to  be  trespass- 
ears,  since  they  were  mining  on  what  the  expected  treaty 
would  make  United  States  public  land  ;  ^  and  when  the 
treaty  became  known  it  only  made  the  legal  aspect  of 
the  matter  clearer.  But  then,  for  the  present,  the  exec- 
utive was  powerless  to  prevent  this  trespassing ;  and  as 
to  the  future,  the  miners  were  destined  to  remain,  by 
their  own  choice  and  by  the  tacit  permission  of  our  gov- 
ernment, unmolested  trespassers  on  the  public  lands  un- 
til the  passage  of  the  act  of  1866,  authorizing  the  survey 
and  sale  of  the  mineral  lands  of  California. 

The  tempting  subject  of  the  social  condition  and  of 
le  adventurous  fortunes  of  the  mines,  during  that  first 
golden  summer,  we  must  here  postpone.  It  would  lead 
us  into  questions  that  our  next  chapter  can  best  consider 
in  their  due  connection  with  the  general  history  of  the 
crises  of  the  early  mining  life.  We  are  still  concerned 
with  the  territory  at  large,  and  must  ask  ourselves,  first 
what  social  changes  the  gold  discovery  brought  upon 
the  country  from  without,  and  then  how  the  reaction  led 
the  already  well-prepared  men  of  the  interregnum  to  in- 
sist upon  leading  the  new-comers  to  submit  to  a  state 
constitution.  For  the  State,  as  we  have  already  de- 
clared, was  the  child  of  the  men  of  the  interregnum ; 
while  the  new-comers  furnished  only,  on  the  one  hand,  a 
few  professional  lawyers  and  politicians  to  help  in  the 
deliberations  of  the  convention,  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  tacit  assent  of  a  crowd  of  generally  careless  miners, 
most  of  whom  took  far  too  little  present  interest  in  any- 

1  The  treaty  of  peace  between  the  United  States  and  Mexico  was 
not  officially  known  in  California  before  the  issue  of  Mason's  procla- 
mation of  August  7,  1848,  announcing  the  fact.    See  the  Cal.  Doc.  p 


THE   CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  225 

thing  but  a  quick  fortune  and  an  early  voyage  home. 
These  new-comers  could  have  done  little  in  the  first 
year,  if  the  men  of  the  interregnum  had  not  been  fully 
ready  for  the  work  of  state-building  ;  but,  at  the  same 
time,  the  coming  of  these  vast  crowds  forced  the  hand 
of  the  executive,  and  so  helped  to  give  the  men  of  the 
interregnum  the  popular  government  for  which  they  had 
so  long  been  striving. 

The  new-comers,  by  sheer  force  of  numbers,  must, 
however,  in  any  case,  thenceforth  give  to  the  State  its 
character.     It  is  important  for  us  to  understand  what 

^manner  of  men  they  were,  and  in  what  spirit  they  came. 

— -They  were,  in  the  first  place,  as  all  who  describe  them 
are  never  weary  of  telling  us,  a  very  miscellaneous  com- 
pany, containing  people  from  all  parts  of  the  world. 
Yet  we  shall  never  understand  them  if  we  suppose  that 
the  cosmopolitan  character  of  the  mass  as  a  whole  re- 
sulted in  a  truly  cosmopolitan  social  life.  The  effective 
majority  in  all  the  chief  communities  was  formed  of 
Americans,  and  here,  as  everywhere  else  in  our  land, 
the  admixture  of  foreigners  did  not  prevent  the  commu- 
nity from  having,  on  the  whole,  a  distinctly  American 
mode  of  life.  The  foreigners  as  such  had,  of  course, 
no  political  powers,  made  no  laws,  affected  the  choice  of 
,  no  ofiicers,  and  had  no  great  tendency  to  alter  the  more 
I  serious  social  habits,  the  prejudices,  or  the  language  of 
I  Americans.  The  mass  of  the  Americans  in  California 
never  grew  to  understand  the  foreigners  as  a  class,  any 
more  than  we  have  elsewhere  understood  foreigners. 
A  pioneer  tradition  one  indeed  finds,  expressed  in  va- 
rious ways,  to  the  effect  that  the  Americans  in  the  mines 
"  talked  a  language  half -English,  half -Mexican  ;  "  but 
this  tradition  must  be  understood  to  mean  simply  that 
15 


226  CALIFORNIA, 

the  majority  of  these  pioneers  mispronounced  a  large 
number  of  Spanish  proper  names  and  several  of  the 
commoner  Spanish  words  and  phrases,  and  were  very 
proud  of  the  accomplishments  that  they  thus  showed. 
No  one  who  has  grown  up  in  California  can  be  under 
any  illusion  as  to  the  small  extent  to  which  the  American 
character,  as  there  exemplified,  has  been  really  altered 
by  foreign  intercourse,  large  as  the  foreign  population 
has  always  remained. 

The  foreign  influence  has  never  been  for  the  American 
community  at  large,  in  California,  more  than  skin-deep. 
One  has  assumed  a  very  few  and  unimportant  native 
Californian  ways,  one  has  freely  used  or  abused  the  few 
words  and  phrases  aforesaid,  one  has  grown  well  accus- 
tomed to  the  sight  of  foreigners  and  to  business  relations 
with  them,  and  one's  natural  innocence  about  foreign 
matters  has  in  California  given  place,  even  more  fre- 
quently than  elsewhere  in  our  country,  to  a  superficial 
familiarity  with  the  appearance  and  the  manners  of 
numerous  foreign  communities.  But  all  this  in  no  wise 
renders  the  American  life  in  California  less  distinctly 
native  in  tone.  The  theatre,  the  opera,  and  the  out- 
of-door  amusements  of  the  early  American  population 
were,  as  far  as  I  can  see,  the  social  institutions  most 
affected  by  foreign  influences ;  and  the  foreign  people 
have  indeed  had  great  effect  upon  these  matters  ever 
since.  But  that  resulted,  and  still  results,  from  our  own 
naturally  earnest,  bare,  and  unaesthetic  national  life. 
An  amusement  is  usually  something  external  to  us,  some- 
thing that  as  a  nation  we  cannot  invent,  and  that  we 
therefore  have  to  accept,  with  little  independent  criticism, 
from  foreign  sources.  So,  in  early  California,  the  for- 
eigners soon  furnished  not  only  the  good  music    and 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  227 

8ome  of  the  theatrical  performances,^  but  also  numerous 
bull-fights  and  many  gambling-halls.  We  accepted  all 
these  delights  indiscriminately  and  submissively,  and 
Bupported  them  very  generously.  In  time  we  outgrew 
the  bull-fights  and  abolished  the  public  gambling-halls  ; 
but  we  have  always  in  California  remained  indebted  to 
the  foreign  population  for  much  amusement  of  the  other 
and  higher  sorts,  of  which,  indeed,  they  have  given  us  a 
great  many  really  excellent  experiences.  An  amusement, 
good  or  bad,  remains,  however,  to  the  last  an  external 
-\  addition  to  the  average  American's  life,  and  you  cannot 
2/\call  a  community  of  Americans  foreign  in  disposition 
Merely  because  its  amusements  have  a  foreign  look. 
The  causes  that  began  to  work  in  early  California,  and 
that  have  not  rendered  the  modern  American  California  — 
as  distinct  and  original  a  community  as  it  is,  must  be 
sought  elsewhere  than  in  the  influences  furnished  from 
foreign  sources. 

More  important,  then,  both  for  the  life  of  the  early 
community  and  for  the  growth  of  the  State  ever  since, 
has  been   the  fact  that  the  Americans  present  repre- 
sented all  parts  of  the  Union.     The  native  American 
Californian  grows   up  to-day  with    some  Northern   or 
i    Southern  sympathies,  since  his  parents  have  taught  him 
I    to  have  them,  but  usually  without  strong  Northern  or 
i    Southern  animosities.     If  he  pretends  to  have  such,  a 
short  change  of  dwelling-place  to  a  suitable  community 
is  enough  to  remove  them.     The  old  feelings  that  have 
ruled  a  warring  generation  east  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains he  cannot  enter  into.     Much  of  the  old  bitterness 

1  Although,  indeed,  the  Americaa  theatre  also  was  better  developed 
in  San  Francisco,  in  tha  early  years,  than  was  any  other  form  of 
American  amusements. 


228  CALIFORNIA. 

amuses  him,  too,  as  he  hears  of  it  also  at  home.  For 
many  early  settlers,  Northern  and  Southern  men  of  the 
old  days  before  the  war,  have  not  forgotten  in  Califor- 
nia their  ancient  quarrels,  and  they  yet  express  their 
sectional  feelings  in  many  emphatic  ways,  although 
scarcely  with  the  ardor  still  known  in  some  older  parts 
of  the  country.  But  with  the  young  Californian  these 
old  differences,  save  when  viewed  as  matters  of  history, 
are  little  more  than  mere  phrases.  He  has  seen  these 
Northern  and  Southern  men  together  all  his  life,  and  to 
him  they  are  what  they  are,  simply  Californians,  with 
various  trainings  and  tastes  and  prejudices,  and  with 
numberless  political  and  private  quarrels,  but  very  much 
alike  notwithstanding.  He  may  join  in  repeating  the 
bitter  phrases  himself,  but  you  see  at  once,  by  the  me- 
chanical glibness  wherewith  he  uses  them,  how  little  they 
mean  to  him. 

Very  early,  however,  this  relatively  peaceful  mingling 
of  Americans  from  North  and  South  had  already  deeply 
affected  the  tone  of  California  life.  There  was  never  a 
thought  of  border  warfare  in  the  early  days  of  Califor- 
nia. There  were  no  such  troubles  as  those  later  in  Kan- 
sas. One  object  of  very  many  at  first  was  to  forget  the 
unhappy  sectional  quarrels  that  had  prevailed  at  home. 
California  fell  into  the  ranks  of  free  States  without  any 
sort  of  struggle  carried  on  upon  her  own  soil.  There 
were  numerous  plots,  no  doubt,  for  a  future  division  of 
her  territory,  and  for  the  introduction  of  slavery  into  the 
southern  half ;  but  these  plots  related  to  the  future. 
For  the  moment  California  was  non-partisan.  This 
purely  non-partisan  stage  in  politics  was  indeed  brief. 
By  1851  the  Democratic  party  was  well  organized,  and 
thenceforth,  until  the  war,  it  rided  the  State.     In  the 


THE    CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  229 

d3,ys  of  its  rule,  Southern  politicians  predominated  in 
the  State's  affairs,  and  sectional  intolerance  was  often 
enough  and  bitterly  enough  expressed.  But  there  was 
still  this  to  be  noted  in  California :  the  hotter  the  South- 
ern politicians  grew,  the  greater,  on  the  whole,  seemed 
to  wax  their  political  influence  over  Northern  men.  The 
Northern  men  were,  however,  all  the  time  in  a  majority, 
but  they  submitted  to  the  dictation  of  Southern  politi- 
cians. They  did  this  partly  because,  as  Californians, 
they  had  everything  to  gain  by  avoiding  bitter  sectional 
-^conflicts,  and  partly  for  the  simple  reason  that  the  South- 
£)^rn  politicians  were,  as  a  class,  by  far  the  ablest  politi- 
~-^ans  in  the  field.  There  was,  for  instance,  nobody  in 
California  before  the  war  who  could  cope  on  equal 
terms,  as  a  skillful  party  leader,  with  Senator  Gwin 
save  one,  David  Broderick,  and  he  was  by  family  and 
training  a  characteristic  Irish-American,  not  a  typical 
Anglo-American  at  all.  So,  just  because  they  were 
abler  managers,  the  Southerners  remained  nearly  al- 
ways at  the  head,  until  the  war  came.  Then,  indeed, 
the  Northern  business  men  of  the  State  were  far  too  pa- 
triotic, not  to  say  far  too  clever,  to  be  led  into  secession 
by  any  politicians,  however  skillful,  and  for  the  entire 
war  period  they  kept  down  all  Southern  influences  with 
becomingly  stern  majorities ;  yet  only  to  give  a  large 
place  once  more  to  these  same  influences  from  almost 
the  outset  of  the  reconstruction  period.  Since  then 
California  has  been  a  "  doubtful  State  "  in  politics. 

In  short,  then,  the  North,  despite  all  quarrels,  grew 
from  the  outset  nearer  to  the  South  in  Cahfornia  than 
it  has  done  elsewhere.  Americans  came  to  understand 
one  another  as  Americans  ;  and  in  doing  so,  the  North- 
ern men  proved  more  plastic  than  the  Southern.     The 


280  CALIFORNIA. 

type  of  the  Northern  man  who  has  assumed  Southern 
fashions,  and  not  always  the  best  Southern  fashions  at 
that,  has  often  been  observed  in  California  life.  The 
Northern  man  frequently  felt  commonplace,  simple- 
minded,  undignified,  beside  his  brother  from  the  border 
or  from  the  plantation.  There  was  an  air  of  sometimes 
half-barbarous  but  always,  in  some  mysterious  fashion, 
dignified  freedom  about  this  picturesque  wanderer  from 
the  Southern  border,  who  was  doubtless  often  able  to 
seem  of  much  more  social  significance  abroad  than  he 
could  have  dared  assume  at  home.  The  Northern  man 
admired  this  wanderer's  fluency  in  eloquent  harangue, 
his  vigor  in  invective,  his  ostentatious  courage,  his  abso- 
lute confidence  about  all  matters  of  morals,  of  politics, 
and  of  propriety,  and  his  inscrutable  union  in  his  public 
discourse  of  sweet  reasonableness  with  ferocious  intol- 
erance. The  Northern  man  was  fluent,  too,  but  with  a 
less  sustained  eloquence,  with  more  of  a  certain  formal 
mildness  and  good-humor  in  his  public  behavior.  He 
had  great  confidence  in  all  good  public  speakers  ;  he  had 
a  strong  disposition  to  compromise  public  differences ;  he 
indeed  could  not  be  fooled  about  a  matter  of  business  by 
any  Southerner ;  but  both  the  sweet  reasonableness  and 
the  ferocious  intolerance  overcame  him  in  debate.  He 
often  followed  the  Southerner,  and  was  frequently,  in 
time,  partly  assimilated  by  the  Southern  civilization. 

It  is  because  of  this  intimate  union  of  Northern  and 
Southern  men  that  we  think  early  California  so  good 
a  place  for  showing  the  American  character,  as  distin- 
guished from  any  local  character.  Yet  how  this  Amer^ 
ican  character  was  at  first  shown  we  can  understand 
only  in  case  we  remember  the  wandering  and  fortune 
^^    hunting  spirit  in  which  all  these  men  alike  came. 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  231 

Families  there  indeed  were  among  the  early  immi- 
grants. One  who,  like  the  present  writer,  is  a  son  of 
pioneers  of  1849,  is  not  disposed  to  forget  the  fact  that 
there  were  such  families.  Yet  the  women  are  miiver- 
eally  known  to  have  been  at  best  very  few.  The  men, 
therefore,  had  generally  left  their  responsibilities  else- 
where. We  shall  have  so  many  occasions  to  remind 
the  reader  of  this  familiar  fact  henceforth  that  we  need 
only  touch  upon  it  here.  Yet  the  resulting  irrespon- 
sible and  adventurous  mood  of  the  community  can  best 
be  understood  by  a  few  references  to  contemporary 
sources. 

For  nearly  all  these  men  expected,  of  course,  to  go 
back  soon  to  their  homes,  vastly  wealthy.  The  gold 
fever  of  1848-49  in  the  East,  after  the  news  reached 
the  Atlantic,  has  often  been  described.  All  energetic 
and  progressive  men  were  apt  to  be  affected  by  it.  The 
life  promised  was  wholly  new,  adventurous,  golden,  — 
a  fine  contrast  to  the  commonplace  work  of  the  older 
American  communities,  a  perfect  satisfaction  to  our 
wandering  race  instincts.  But  of  course  this  natural  ex- 
citement was  not  left  to  itself.  There  were  people  in- 
terested in  increasing  it  by  deliberate  lies.  The  false 
dreams  of  hopeful  youth  were  thus  supplemented  by 
forged  documents,  which  seemed  to  prove  the  truth  of 
golden  wonders  that  were  in  fact  mere  inventions.  I 
have  before  me,  as  I  write,  such  a  lying  document, 
printed  in  New  York,  and  dated  1848 ;  a  pamphlet, 
namely,  purporting  to  be  written  by  one  H.  I.  Simpson, 
of  Stevenson's  Regiment,^  and  called  "  Three  Weeks  in 

1  According  to  Mr.  H.  H.  Bancroft's  Pioneer  Lists,  there  is  no  such 
name  on  the  rolls  of  Stevenson's  Regiment.  The  pamphlet  was 
printed  by  Joyce  &  Co.  of  40  Ann  Street,  New  York,  and  the  copy 
known  to  me  is  in  Harvard  College  Library. 


232  CALIFORNIA. 

the  Gold  Mines."  I  have  traced  to  a  source  in  an  au« 
thentic  letter,  published  first  in  the  "  Calif ornian  "  at 
San  Francisco,  July  15,  1848,  and  reprinted  in  Foster's 
*'  Gold  Regions  of  California,"  ^  a  part  of  the  material 
used  by  the  writer  of  the  pamphlet,  who  has  misunder- 
stood his  sources  in  such  wise  as  to  make  amusing  geo- 
graphical and  other  blunders.^  Yet  his  literary  skill  is 
admirable,  and  his  lying  is  so  circumstantial,  and  his 
stolen  authentic  information  is  often,  meanwhile,  so  elab- 
orate and  accurate,  that  one  reads  him  with  a  feeling 
of  profound  respect. 

Our  interest  in  such  pamphlets  is  the  kind  of  mood  to 
which  they  appealed,  and  which  they  inflamed.  "  Simp- 
son "  describes  a  life  of  leisurely  gold-gleaning.  His 
creator  knows  how  not  to  seem  too  extravagant,  even 
while  lying.  In  the  course  of  the  "  three  weeks,"  one 
goes  in  quite  impossible  stages  from  Sutter's  Fort  to  the 
foot  of  the  "  Shastl  "  peak  (evidently  Mount  Shasta), 
and  returns.  One  walks  so  far,  not  because  the  gold  is 
scarce  (on  the  contrary,  one  finds  it  lining  stream-bot- 
toms all  about),  but  solely  because  one  wants  to  get  a 
notion  of  the  size  of  the  gold  region.  Ten  days  of  these 
"  three  weeks  "  are,  however,  spent  by  two  men,  with 
almost  no  implements,  in  picking  up  $50,000  of  gold. 

1  Page  27  of  the  book,  as  heretofore  cited. 

'^  The  writer  of  the  aiuthentic  letter  above  cited,  who  had  gone  to 
the  mines  in  May,  or  earl}'  in  June,  correctly  described  the  country 
passed  over  as  then  "covered  with  the  richest  verdure,  intertwined 
with  flowers  of  every  hue."  The  lying  pamphlet  copies  this  expres- 
sion with  slight  verbal  variations,  biit  incautiously  makes  "  Simp- 
son "  apply  it,  in  the  forged  letter,  to  the  road  from  San  Francisco  to 
San  Jos^  in  the  latter  part  of  August  !  "  Simpson  "  also  makes  (p.  6 
of  the  pamphlet)  this  road  to  San  Jose  pass  through  the  "delta" 
formed  by  the  Sacramento  and  San  Joaquin  rivers,  and  he  finds  Saa 
Jos^  itself  lying  in  this  "delta  "  I 


THE   CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  233 

During  the  rest  of  the  time  the  yield  is  much  more  mod- 
erate, just  because  one  is  wandering,  or  is  talking  over 
theories  about  the  great  central  gold  vein,  whence  all 
this  gold  no  doubt  "  streamed  "  or  was  "  thrown  out," 
in  the  old  "  volcanic  "  days.^  Of  course  one  has  to  work 
for  one's  gold.  One  does  not  exactly  pick  the  lumps 
"  off  the  ground,"  as  the  song  "  Susannah  "  stated  the 
case.  "  Simpson's  "  creator  is  too  clever  to  say  that. 
The  great  point  is  that  one's  labor  is  certain  to  be  easily 
-^and  vastly  and  steadily  rewarded,  and  that  one's  first 
_3mple  guesses*  about  where  the  gold  is  to  be  found 
prove  perfectly  correct.  One's  wandering  merely  veri- 
fies all  predictions.  One's  companions  are  also  the 
best  of  fellows.  The  life  is  perfectly  happy.  Why 
should  not  all  one's  friends  come,  too,  and  make  their 
fortunes  among  these  inexhaustible  treasure-houses  ?  All 
this  tale  is  presented  not  vaguely,  nor  with  merely  stupid 
exaggerations.  The  extravagance  is  veiled  with  a  skill- 
fully false  show  of  manly  reserve  and  moderation.  One 
admits  that  there  are  some  varieties  of  fortune.  One 
adds  meanwhile  to  the  actually  absurd  and  mendacious 
tale  multitudinous  little  facts,  —  descriptions  of  land- 
scape, of  people,  of  geographical  matters,  with  names 
and  dates  also  freely  given ;  and  the  names  and  the 
local  facts  are  often  real,  and  are  then  easily  verifiable 
through  the  current  authentic  descriptions  of  California, 

1  An  interesting  chapter  could  be  made  up  of  the  theories,  framed 
on  the  basis  of  the  popular  geology  then  current,  which  were  discussed 
by  miners  in  those  days,  in  their  efforts  to  understand  the  sources  and 
disposition  of  the  gold,  theories  in  which  "volcanoes"  had  a  very 
large  part.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Benton  amused  himself  with  a  number  of 
them  in  his  very  entertaining  California  Pilgrim  (Sacramento,  1853), 
pp.  231,  sqq.  Others  one  finds  in  various  communications  to  the  early 
newspapers.  Men  spent  much  time  and  money  in  disproving  them 
before  becoming  satisfied. 


f 


234  CALIFORNIA. 

from  which  they  are  in  fact  derived.  So  that,  in  fine, 
the  pamphlet  is  very  persuasive  and  plausible,  and  is  a 
type  of  the  sort  of  thing  that  in  those  days  led  thou- 
sands of  trusting  and  incapable  young  men  to  a  miserable 
death  in  the  wilderness,  or  in  the  degraded  and  demop* 
alized  drinking  and  gambling  camps  of  the  wilder  days. 
Men,  whether  capable  or  incapable,  who  read  such 
things,  were  not  in  the  mood  for  sober  state-building, 
and  would  have  to  learn  much  ere  they  could  attain  that 
mood  in  the  land  whither  they  went.  From  that  land 
many  of  them  would  indeed  return,  more  or  less  de- 
feated, poor  and  broken-spirited  ;  many  would  die  early 
deaths ;  the  survivors  would  for  the  most  part  stay  in 
the  new  land  as  hard  toilers  and  poor  men  ;  a  few  only 
would  reap  great  fortunes,  and  of  these  few  only  a  part 
would  ever  again  see  the  old  home.  The  average  net 
income  per  man  throughout  the  whole  mining  commu- 
nity, even  in  the  best  days,  was,  in  view  of  the  high  ex- 
penses of  living,  seldom  more  than  equal  to  treble  the 
wages  of  an  unskilled  day  laborer  at  home,  and  was 
usually  much  less  than  that.  The  miners  themselves 
were  the  least  likely  of  all  men  in  California  to  become 
wealthy.  The  high  wages  naturally  meant,  for  the 
miners,  seldom  the  inducement  to  save  for  their  fam- 
ilies at  home,  but  almost  always  the  temptation  to 
extravagance.  Meanwhile,  the  unsteady  life  affected 
the  whole  community  in  lamentable  ways.  For  such 
realities,  then,  the  golden  dreams  were  preparing  the 
dreamers. 

VIII.    THE   WAYS    TO   THE    NEW   LAND. 

The  new-comers  reached  California  either  by  watei 
or  by  the  emigrant  trail  across  the  continent.     In  the 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  235 

former  case  they  generally  came  either  by  Panama 
(often,  later,  by  Nicaragua),  and  so  by  the  new  steamers 
that  just  before  the  gold  discovery  had  begun  to  do 
mail  service  in  the  Pacific,  or  else  around  Cape  Horn, 
and  in  that  case  by  whatever  good  or  wretched  sailing 
vessel  could  be  chartered  for  the  purpose.  Steamers 
and  sailing  vessels  came  for  some  time  as  overcrowded 
with  passengers  as  the  passengers'  brains  were  over- 
I^crowded  with  illusions.^  Especially  amusing  is  the  state 
--Mjf  things  at  the  moment  when  the  first  gold-hunters 
from  the  Atlantic  coast  had  reached  Panama,  and  were 
there  waiting  for  the  first  steamer,  the  California,  which 
was  to  carry  them  to  the  golden  land.  The  California 
had  left  for  the  Pacific  Ocean  before  the  gold  was  heard 
of,  in  order  to  go  around  the  Horn,  and  to  begin  the 
new  mail  service.  She  reached  the  South  American 
ports  just  at  the  moment  of  the  beginning  of  the  gold 
excitement  as  felt  there,  and  she  made  San  Francisco 
February  28,  1849,  after  first  stopping  at  Panama  and 
then  at  Monterey.  At  Panama  she  had  to  take  up  all 
who  could  be  crowded  aboard.  Yet,  ere  she  reached 
Panama,  the  people  there  had  already  had  time  to  live 
through  much  excitement  and  perplexity.  The  steamer 
Oregon,  a  little  later,  found  yet  larger  crowds  of  these 
unhappy  ones.  The  climate  was  fatal  to  some  and  un- 
healthy to  many  more,  and  every  one  was  enraged  to 
find  such  imperfect  means  of  transportation  ready  on 
the  Pacific  side.  Of  the  new  life  in  California  every- 
body present  had  also  the  wildest  notions,  and  fretted  at 

1  For  the  Cape  Horn  voyage  and  the  illusions,  well  described,  see 
Dr.  Stillman's  fine  record,  from  contemporary  letters,  in  his  Seeking 
the  Golden  Fleece  (San  Francisco,  1877).  Some  few  of  the  new- 
comers crossed  Central  Mexico,  more  used  the  Isthmus  of  Tehaun- 
tepee;  but  these  were  routes  of  minor  importance. 


236  CALIFORNIA. 

each  hour  of  delay.^  But,  meanwhile,  the  American 
spirit  hunted  for  suitable  expression.  After  the  Cali- 
fornia had  passed,  a  newspaper,  the  "Panama  Star," 
was  begun  on  the  spot  by  the  impatient  watchers  for  fur- 
ther steamers.  This  paper  was  well  filled  with  bitter 
complaints  about  the  expenses  of  this  weary  life  on  the 
way,  about  the  poor  accommodations  attainable  at  Pan- 
ama, and  about  the  deceit  practiced  by  the  steamship 
companies  that  had  brought  the  people  here.^  In  the 
same  "  Star,"  meanwhile,  Protestant  church  exercises 
are  also  announced,  and  accounts  are  given  of  a  recent 
celebration  of  Washington's  birthday  with  a  becoming 
dinner,  with  speeches  and  with  toasts.  What  the  wan- 
derers ate  at  this  dinner  does  not  appear ;  but  as  they 
say  in  the  "  Star  "  that  nearly  all  the  preserved  meats 
brought  from  New  York  have  been  spoiled,  and  as  they 
seem  in  general  a  very  hungry  crew,  one  is  disposed 
to  imagine  that  on  Washington's  birthday  they  dined 
off  bananas,  and  drank  such  brandy  as  Panama  af- 
forded. 

Their  American  citizenship,  at  all  events,  these  sor- 
rowing wanderers  could  not  forget.  When  the  Cali- 
fornia came,  those  who  were  already  on  the  spot  were 
shocked  to  find  that  she  brought  with  her  not  less  than 
seventy-five  Peruvians  as  steerage  passengers.  For 
the  Peruvians  also  had  caught  the  gold  fever.  Now 
even  a  Peruvian,  as  is  unhappily  obvious,  so  far  pre- 
sumes upon  the  fact  that  God  made  him  as  to  take  up 

1  Rev.  Mr.  Willey,  in  his  excellent  statement,  B.  MS.,  has  vividly 
described  the  situation  at  Panama  at  this  moment,  and  I  am  much  in- 
debted to  his  account. 

2  The  Panama  Star  of  February  24,  1849,  is  the  number  that  I 
have  used,  and  that  is  now  preserved  in  the  Pioneer  Library  at  San 
Francisco. 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  237 

room,  a  truth  that  one  thousand  American  citizens,  wait- 
ing for  a  chance  to  get  on  board  a  steamer  that  was 
made  to  hold  at  most,  perhaps,  one  fourth  as  many  men, 
deeply  and  with  obvious  justice  resented.     The  reasons 
for  their  resentment  were  further  enforced  by  the  truly 
righteous  reflection  that   these  base   South  Americans 
were  actually  trying  to  go  and  steal  gold  in  California, 
—  gold  which   plainly  belonged    solely  to  Americans. 
-^^  What  could  be  done  ?     General  Persifer  F.  Smith,  as  it 
J/  chanced,  was  waiting  at  Panama  also,  and  was  to  go 
with  his  little  escort  on  the  California,  to  take  command 
of  our  forces  on  the  Pacific  coast.     He  was    heaven's 
messenger  at  this  time  to  his  perplexed  countrymen. 
He  could  vindicate  the  eternal  justice.     To  make  him  a 
better  messenger  of  heaven  just  then,  he  had,  as  his 
letters  to  the  government  show,  quite  lost  his  head  for 
the  nonce,  and  was  at  the  mercy  of  the  prayers  of  his 
furious   fellow-citizens.      Accordingly   he   entered   into 
their  feelings  entirely.     He  reflected  that  all  the  gold- 
miners  in  California  were,  and  would  for  some  time  re- 
main, trespassers   on  public  lands,  and  that  it  was  his 
solemn  duty,  as  military  commander  of  the  Department 
of  the  Pacific,  to  keep  them  all  off.     He  also  reflected 
that  he  could  not  keep  them  all  off,  as  they  were  many, 
and   his   force  would   be  small.     He  further  reflected 
that  if  he  could  not  keep  them  all  off  he  might  keep 
some  of  them  off,  for  the  benefit  of  the  others,   thus 
at  once  protecting  the  public  lands,  pleasing  the  favored 
trespassers,  and  keeping  out  the  foreigners.     For,  as 
he   concluded,   these    Peruvians,   and   men  like   them, 
would   be    somehow  more  genuine  trespassers  on   the 
public  lands  than  his  countrymen  would  be.     For  of 
course  trespassing  is  a  thing  of  degrees,  and  is  toler- 


238  calif6rnia. 

able  if  the  trespasser  is  a  good  fellow.  The  foreigners, 
therefore,  he  determined  to  exclude,  and  so  announced 
in  a  proclamation,  whose  sole  immediate  intent  was 
to  clear  the  steerage  of  the  California  of  those  insolent 
and  space-consuming  Peruvians.^  But  the  latter  re- 
fused to  leave  the  ship,  and  Smith's  worthless  thunder 
afterwards  died  away  before  he  had  fairly  settled  to  his 
work  in  California.  All  miners  were  alike  trespassers, 
and  all  alike  needed  peace,  and  protection  from  the  gov- 
ernment, which  could  not  possibly  have  excluded  them 
if  it  had  desired.  This  the  general  soon  recognized, 
and  did  his  best  thenceforth  to  secure  good  order. 

The  proclamation,  however,  called  forth  an  eloquent 
letter  in  the  "Panama  Star,"  from  an  American  gold- 
seeker,  —  a  letter  far  too  good  to  be  lost.  This  corre- 
spondent, chafing  in  his  enforced  idleness  at  Panama, 
calls  upon  his  future  American  fellow-trespassers  to  pre- 
pare to  help  enforce  Smith's  proclamation  against  for- 
eigners whenever  California  shall  be  reached.  It  is 
plain  to  him  that  the  matter  is  one  of  simple  right. 
Not,  of  course,  that  he  means  ill  by  the  foreign  miners. 

"  If  foreigners  come,  let  them  till  the  soil  and  make 
roads,  or  do  any  other  work  that  may  suit  them,  and 

1  The  proclamation  is  to  be  found  in  the  Panama  Star  as  cited. 
Rev.  Mr.  Willey  gives  the  mentioned  motive  as  the  real  one  in  his 
statement.  P.  F.  Smith's  letters  to  the  War  Department,  Cal.  Doc.  of 
1850  (as  cited),  pp.  704,  sqq.,  themselves  further  show  suflSciently  both 
the  clouded  stale  of  his  own  judgment  at  the  moment  and  the  true 
motive  for  his  proclamation,  whose  text  is  given  here  also,  on  p.  718. 
On  p.  712,  Smith  announces  his  intention,  March  15,  now  that  he  has 
actually  reached  California,  to  enforce  his  proclamation,  but  on  p.  720 
he  acknowledges  that  he  can  do  nothing.  General  Riley's  view,  a 
short  time  later,  in  his  capacity  as  governor  of  California,  appears 
from  p.  789,  in  a  letter  of  August  30,  1849,  where  he  shows  a  very 
sensible  willingness  to  abandon  all  such  foolish  distinctions  between 
trespassers. 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  239 

they  may  become  prosperous  ;  but  the  gold-mines  were 
preserved  by  nature  for  Americans  only,  who  possess 
noble  hearts,  and  are  willing  to  share  with  their  fellow- 
men  more  than  any  other  race  of  men  on  earth,  but  still 
they  do  not  wish  to  give  all.  I  ask  of  them  who  have 
:;— 4eft  their  homes,  their  comforts,  their  wives  and  chil- 
di\en,  and  other  dear  relatives,  if  they  would  be  willing 
to  share  all  the  hopes  with  the  millions  that  might  be 
shipped  from  the  four  quarters  of  the  globe.  I  will 
answer  for  them  and  say  no.  We  will  share  our  inter- 
est in  the  gold-mines  with  none  but  American  citizens." 

AUjbhis  unconsciously  brutal  mixture  of  greed  with  4>. 
nioctjustice  would  seem  to  us  excellent  fooling,  if  we  did 
not  remember  that  such  ideas  took  form  later  in  Califor- 
nia, in  the  Foreign  Miners'  Tax  Law  of  1850,  and  in  the 
numberless  indecencies,  vexatious  regulations,  and  atroci- 
ties, that  marked  our  treatment  of  the  foreigners  in  early 
mining  days.  The  next  chapter  will  teach  us  to  give 
the  words  of  such  men  as  this  correspondent  a  very 
serious  meaning. 

This  voyage  by  Panama  had,  during  all  the  early 
years,  until  the  isthmus  railroad  came,  its  peculiar  dan- 
gers and  excitements.  The  tedious  passage  up  the 
Chagres  River  and  across  the  low  mountains,  the  lazily 
clever  natives,  with  their  endless  thieving  and  cheating 
devices,  the  frequently  long  waiting  at  Panama,  the 
terrible  cholera,  the  equally  terrible  Panama  fever,  the 
weariness,  the  heat,  the  degenerate  life  of  many  of  the 
watching  travelers,  and  then  the  sickly  passage  on  the 
crowded  steamers  northward,  the  fogs  on  the  California 
coast,  the  untrustworthy  charts  that  made  everybody 
uncertain  how  near  shipwreck  one  might  at  any  moment 
be,  and  the  final  joy  when  the  Golden  Gate  appeared, 


240  CALIFORNIA. 

and  when  one  sailed  through  the  long,  narrow  strait 
into  the  magnificent  harbor,  and  anchored  in  front  of 
the  strange  new  city  of  tents,  —  all  these  things  we  may 
read  in  numberless  narratives  of  the  early  golden  days, 
and  may  still  hear  from  the  lips  of  many  pioneers.^ 
The  Panama  voyage,  however,  remains  in  its  character 
largely  a  tale  of  adventure,  although  not  indeed  without 
some  very  educating  experiences.  More  important  still 
for  the  social  education  of  thousands  of  new-comers  was, 
however,  the  seemingly  monotonous  life  of  the  long  voy- 
age in  crowded  vessels  around  Cape  Horn.  For  quar- 
rels with  incompetent  or  dishonest  sea-captains,  and 
quarrels  among  the  passengers  themselves,  were  com- 
mon enough  in  this  vast  fleet  of  hastily  chosen  and  often 
improperly  manned  and  governed  vessels.  One  thus 
learned  tedious  lessons  of  unavoidable  tolerance  and  of 
self-government ;  but  one  also  grew  somewhat  indif- 
ferent to  the  forms  and  machinery  of  government  as 
practiced  on  land,  and  became  disposed  to  think  a  di- 
rect appeal  to  the  community  the  best  form  of  popular 
administration.  Furthermore,  one  saw  much,  in  the 
various  ports,  of  foreign  peoples  and  customs.  One 
reached  California  after  long  months  of  sailing,  trained 
in  independence,  and  with  a  comparatively  wide  experi- 
ence of  men.  Some  of  the  new-comers  around  the  Horn 
have  since  been  among  California's  most  significant  citi- 
zens. 

On  the  plains  journeyed,  meanwhile,  in  the  summer 
of  1849,  and  in  a  number  of  subsequent  summers,  vast 
crowds  of  weary  emigrants,  who  faced  disease,  hunger, 

1  Bayard  Taylor'g  El  Dorado  tells  of  the  voyage  in  the  earliest 
days.  Other  pioneer  accounts  are  too  numerous  to  be  catalogued 
here. 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  241 

and  Indians  for  the  sake  of  the  golden  land.  Their  life 
also  has  been  frequently  described ;  most  fully  and  suc- 
cessfully, perhaps,  in  the  contemporary  record  of  Delano 
(Old  Block),  himself  one  of  them,  and  a  man  of  mark 
later  in  the  pioneer  community.^  As  my  own  parents 
were  of  this  great  company,  I  have  taken  a  natural 
interest  in  following  their  fortunes,  and  have  before  me 
a  manuscript,  prepared  by  my  mother  for  my  use, 
wherein,  as  an  introduction  to  her  own  reminiscences 
^f  early  days  in  San  Francisco  and  elsewhere  in  Cal- 
ifornia, she  has  narrated,  from  her  diary  of  that  time, 
the  story  of  the  long  land  journey.  Her  diary  and 
recollections  are  not  as  full  as  Delano's,  but  contain 
many  incidents  very  characteristic  of  the  whole  life. 
The  route  taken  and  the  general  sequence  of  events  in 
the  early  part  of  the  journey  do  not  vary  much  in  her 
account  from  the  ordinary  things  narrated  by  all  the 
emigrants  of  that  year.  There  was  the  long  ascent  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  with  the  cholera  following  the 
trains  for  a  time,  until  the  mountain  air  grew  too  pure 
and  cool  for  it.  A  man  died  of  cholera  in  my  father's 
wagon.  There  were  also  the  usual  troubles  in  the  trains 
on  the  way,  among  such  emigrants  as  had  started  out  in 
partnership,  using  a  wagon  in  common,  or  providing, 
one  a  wagon,  and  another  the  oxen  or  mules.  Such 
partnerships  were  unstable,  and  to  dissolve  them  in  the 
wilderness  would  tisually  mean  danger  or  serious  loss  to 
one  of  the  partners.  In  settling  these  and  other  dis- 
putes, much  opportunity  was  given  to  the  men  of  emi- 
grant trains  for  showing  their  power  to  preserve  the 

1  A.  Delano,  Life  on  the  Plains  and  at  the  Diggings,  Auburn  and 
Buffalo,  1854.  The  journey  across  the  plains  is  given  from  the  au- 
thor's diary. 

16 


242  CALIFORNIA. 

peace  and  to  govern  themselves.  There  was  also  the 
delight  at  length,  for  my  mother  as  for  everybody,  of 
reaching  the  first  waters  that  flowed  towards  the  Pacific 
Ocean.  And  then  there  was  the  arrival  at  Salt  Lake, 
the  meeting  with  the  still  well-disposed  Mormons,  and 
the  busy  preparation  for  the  final  stage  of  the  great 
undertaking. 

From  Salt  Lake  westward  my  parents,  with  their 
one  child,  my  eldest  sister,  then  but  two  years  old,  trav- 
eled apart  from  any  train,  and  with  but  three  men  as 
companions.  Their  only  guide-book  was  now  a  MS. 
list  of  daily  journeys  and  camping-places,  prepared  by 
a  Mormon  who  had  gone  to  California  and  back  in 
1848.  This  guide-book  was  helpful  as  far  as  the  Sink 
of  the  Humboldt,  but  confused  and  worthless  beyond. 
The  result  was  that,  after  escaping,  in  a  fashion  that 
seemed  to  them  almost  miraculous,  an  openly  threat- 
ened attack  of  hostile  Indians  on  the  Humboldt  River, 
—  an  attack  that,  in  their  weakness,  they  could  not  for 
a  moment  have  resisted,  —  they  came  to  the  Sink,  only 
to  miss  the  last  good  camping-place  there,  and,  by  rea- 
son of  their  vaguely-written  guide-book,  to  find  them- 
selves lost  on  the  Carson  desert.  They  erelong  became 
convinced  that  they  had  missed  their  way,  and  that 
they  must  wander  back  on  their  own  trail  towards  the 
Sink.  It  was  a  terrible  moment,  of  course,  when  they 
thus  knew  that  th^ir  faces  must  be  turned  to  the  east. 
One  was  confused,  almost  stupefied,  for  a  while  by  the 
situation.  The  same  fatal  horror  of  desolation  and 
death  that  had  assailed  the  Donner  party  in  the  Truckee 
pass  seemed  for  a  while  about  to  destroy  these  emigi'ants 
also.  They  knew  themselves  to  be  among  the  last  of 
the  great  procession.     Many  things   had  concurred  to 


THE  CON dU EST  COMPLETED.  243 

delay  and  to  vex  them.  It  was  now  already  October, 
and  there 'was  not  a  moment  to  waste.  To  turn  back 
at  such  a  crisis  seemed  simply  desperate.  But  the  little 
Z^^ater  carried  with  them  was  now  nearly  exhausted,  and 
^their  cattle  were  in  hourly  danger  of  falling  down  to  die. 
Dazed  and  half  senseless,  the  company  clustered  for  a 
while  about  their  wagon ;  but  then  a  gleam  of  natural 
cheerfulness  returned.  "  This  will  never  do,"  they  said, 
and  set  about  the  work  of  return.  On  the  way  they  met 
by  chance  another  lonesome  little  party  of  emigrants, 
who,  with  very  scant  supplies,  were  hurrying  westward, 
in  fear  of  the  mountain  snows.  These  could  not  help 
my  father,  save  by  giving  him  a  few  new  directions  for 
finding  water  and  grass  at  the  Sink,  and  for  taking 
the  right  way  across  the  desert.  As  the  slow  wagon 
neared  the  long-sought  camping-place,  my  mother  could 
not  wait  for  the  tired  oxen,  but  remembers  hurrying  on 
alone  in  advance  over  the  plain,  carrying  her  child,  who 
had  now  begun  to  beg  for  water.  In  her  weariness, 
her  brain  was  filled  with  nothing  but  one  familiar  Bible 
story,  which  she  seemed  to  be  dreaming  to  the  very  life 
in  clear  and  cruel  detail.  But  the  end  of  all  this  came, 
and  the  party  rested  at  the  little  pasture-ground  near 
the  Sink. 

These  details  I  mention  here,  not  for  their  personal 
interest,  but  because  they  are  so  characteristic  of  the 
life  of  thousands  in  the  great  summer  of  1849.  My 
mother's  story  goes  on,  however,  to  yet  another  charac- 
teristic experience  of  that  autumn.  Once  supplied  at 
the  Sink,  my  parents,  still  as  nearly  alone  as  before,  set 
out  once  again  across  the  forty-mile  desert,  and,  after 
more  hardships  and  anxiety,  reached  the  welcome  banks 
of  the  Carson.     But  the  mountains  were  now  ahead,  the 


244  CALIFORNIA. 

snows  imminent,  and  the  sand  of  the  Carson  Valley,  un- 
der the  wagon-wheels,  was  deep  and  heavy.  On  October 
12,  however,  they  were  opportunely  met  by  two  mounted 
men  detailed  from  Captain  Chandler's  detachment  of 
the  military  relief  party  which  General  Smith  had  sent 
out  to  meet  and  bring  in  the  last  of  the  emigration.  The 
new-comers,  riding  at  full  speed,  seemed  to  njy  mother, 
in  her  despair,  like  angels  sent  from  heaven  down  by 
the  steep,  dark  mountains  that  loomed  up  to  the  west- 
ward. They  were,  at  all  events,  men  of  good  moun- 
taineering experience  and  of  excellent  spirit,  and  they 
brought  two  extra  mules,  which  were  at  once  put  at  my 
mother's  own  service.  By  the  peremptory  orders  of 
these  relief  men,  the  wagon  was  forthwith  abandoned. 
What  could  be  packed  on  the  still  serviceable  animals 
was  taken,  and  the  rest  of  the  journey  was  made  by  the 
whole  party  mounted.  They  arrived  safely  in  the  mines 
a  little  before  the  heavy  snows  began. 

General  Smith's  energy  and  humanity  in  sending  out 
the  relief,  of  whose  work  these  two  men  were  but  a  sin- 
gle detached  instance,  is  worthy  of  all  praise.  Still  more 
important  than  the  relief  on  this  Carson  route  was  the 
detachment  sent  northward  to  meet  the  ill-starred  emi- 
grants who  had  chosen  the  Peter  Lassen  trail,  in  the 
hope  to  escape  the  desert  west  of  the  Humboldt  Sink  by 
passing  north  of  it.  Their  numbers  were,  at  this  last 
moment  of  the  season,  far  greater,  and  their  suffering 
more  immediate  and  desperate.  As  the  reports  ^  show, 
Chandler  and  the  others  on  the  Truckee  and  Carson 
routes,  relieved,  indeed,  many  cases  where  the  actual 
suffering  was  much  greater  than  even  the  worst  that  my 

1  Official  reports  of  the  relief  expedition  one  finds  in  Ex.  Doc.  5^ 
Slst  Congr.,  Ist  Sess.,  p.  96,  sqq. 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  245 

own  parents  underwent;  yet  this  whole  relief  party 
dealt  largely  with  straggling  parties  at  the  rear  of  a 
i;^xgreat  column,  while  the  Lassen  route  contained  just  then 
^  great  numbers  of  people,  who  suffered  fearfully  and  as 
a  mass.  Delano  himself  ably  describes  the  situation  on 
this  northern  route.^ 

Socially  considered,  the  effect  of  the  long  journey 
across  the  plains  was,  of  course,  rather  to  discipline  than 
to  educate  ;  yet  the  independent  life  of  the  small  trains, 
with  their  frequent  need  of  asserting  their  skill  in  self- 
government,  tended  to  develop  both  the  best  and  the 
worst  elements  of  the  frontier  political  character ;  namely, 
its  facility  in  self-government,  and  its  over-hastiness  in 
using  the  more  summary  devices  for  preserving  order. 
As  for  the  effect  on  the  individual  character,  the  jour- 
ney over  the  plains  was,  at  least  as  a  discipline,  very 
good  for  those  who  were  of  strong  and  cheerful  enough 
disposition  to  recover  from  the  inevitable  despondency 
that  must  at  first  enter  into  the  life  of  even  the  most 
saintly  novice  in  camping.  Where  families  were  to- 
gether, this  happy  recovery  happened,  of  course,  more 
quickly.  One  learned,  meanwhile,  how  to  face  deadly 
dangers  day  by  day  with  patience  and  coolness,  and  to 
strongly  religious  minds  the  psychological  effect  of  this 
solitary  struggle  with  the  deserts  was  almost  magical. 
One  seemed  alone  with  God  in  the  waste,  and  felt  but 
the  thinnest  veil  separating  a  divine  presence  from  the 
souls  that  often  seemed  to  have  no  conceivable  human 
resource  left.  This  experience  often  expresses  itself  in 
language  at  once  very  homely  and  very  mystical.     God's 

1  Op.  cit.,  p.  234.  Delano  himself  got  in  early.  Both  in  this  year 
•and  later,  many  emigrants  also  took  a  southern  route  from  Salt  Lake 
io  Los  Angeles,  and  yet  others  came  via.  Santa  F^. 


246  CALIFORNIA. 

presence,  it  declares,  was  no  longer  a  matter  of  faith, 
but  of  direct  sight.  Who  else  was  there  but  God  in  the 
desert  to  be  seen  ?  One  was  going  on  a  pilgrimage 
whose  every  suggestion  was  of  the  familiar  sacred  sto- 
ries. One  sought  a  romantic  and  far-off  golden  land  of 
promise,  and  one  was  in  the  wilderness  of  this  world, 
often  guided  only  by  signs  from  heaven,  —  by  the  stars 
and  by  the  sunset.  The  clear  blue  was  almost  perpetu- 
ally overhead ;  the  pure  mountain  winds  were  about 
one  ;  and  again,  even  in  the  hot  and  parched  deserts,  a 
mysterious  power  provided  the  few  precious  springs  and 
streams  of  water.  Amid  the  jagged,  broken,  and  bar- 
ren hills,  amid  the  desolation  of  the  lonely  plains,  amid 
the  half-unknown  but  always  horrible  dangers  of  the 
way,  one  met  experiences  of  precisely  the  sort  that  else- 
where we  always  find  producing  the  most  enthusiastic 
forms  of  religious  mysticism.  And  so  the  truly  pious 
among  these  struggling  wanderers  gained  from  the 
whole  life  one  element  more  of  religious  steadfastness 
for  the  struggle  that  was  yet  to  come,  in  early  Califor- 
nia, between  every  conservative  tendency  and  the  forces 
of  disorder. 

.  IX.    THE   STRUGGLE   FOR   A   CONSTITUTION. 

The  constitutional -questions  that  the  interregnum 
had  begun  so  fiercely  to  agitate  assumed  a  new  form  in 
the  presence  of  all  these  incoming  strangers.  San  Fran- 
cisco was  already  in  the  summer  of  1849  a  great  town, 
now  very  largely  built  of  tents,  and  daily  growing. 
The  end  of  1849  was  to  see  more  than  one  hundred 
thousand  people  in  the  territory.  Everything  must  be 
improvised,  government  included.  Meanwhile,  anarchy 
seemed  to  be  threatening.    By  May,  1849,  General  Riley 


THE   CONQUEST   COMPLETED.  24t7 

had  succeeded  Colonel  Mason  as  governor,  while  Gen- ^  CKe^ 

eral  Smith  commanded  the  Department  of  the  Pacific  ;  .^_  ^  <^^ 
but  desertions  to  the  mines  had  rendered  the  military  ^^^J^-"^-^ 
^)  power  almost  wholly  ineffective.  Very  good  men  were  ,',  -  c.  < 
disheartened  at  the  prospect.  And  if  the  immigrants  of 
1846  had  fiercely  objected  to  that  fragmentary  pseudo- 
Mexican  legal  system  of  irresponsible  alcaldes,  what 
would  the  new-comers  of  the  spring,  summer,  and  fall 
of  1849  hold  of  the  same  system  in  an  even  more  degen- 
erate form  ?  Who  should  govern  these  crowds  ?  Them- 
selves? But  then  the  whole  theory  that  the  United 
States  government  still  held  would  have  to  be  aban- 
doned. Or  should  the  United  States  military  governor 
remain  as  before  at  the  head  of  affairs  ?  But  his  au- 
thority was  now  called  in  question  on  new  grounds,  and 
with  very  great  plausibility,  since  the  treaty  of  peace. 
And  if  he  had  authority,  where  were  the  soldiers  to  be 
found  in  sufficient  force  to  maintain  it  ?  The  social 
condition,  then,  seemed  to  call  urgently  for  immediate 
action. 

>4  For  now,  just  as  this  new  social  condition  was  estab-  ^ 
lishing  itself,  the  feeling  began  to  grow  very  strong  that 
the  political  situation  of  the  country  was,  since  the  treaty 
of  peace,  a  wholly  new  one.  And  here  begins  one  of 
the  strangest  periods  in  California  political  history. 
What  was  the  actual  legal  status  of  the  territory  of  Califor- 
nia after  the  treaty  of  peace  ?  Congress,  as  we  know, 
never  passed  any  law  for  the  formation  of  a  California 
territorial  government,  and  so  the  anomalous  condition, 
whatever  it  was,  continued  to  exist  down  to  the  time  of 
the  admission  of  the  State  of  California  into  the  Union. 
Now  two  great  and  conflicting  theories  of  the  status  of 
California  were   commonly  held  at    that  time.     These 


^^ 


248  CALIFORNIA. 

two  came  into  open  opposition  in  the  beginning  of  1849. 
The  one  was  the  settlers'  theory,  which  with  full  con- 
fidence regarded  California  as  in  a  condition  analogous 
to  that  of  the  territory  of  Oregon.      This  theory  was 
the  same  in  purport  as  the  previous  settlers'  theory  that 
had  been  maintained  in  the  "  Star  "  of  1847,  but  it  was 
now  urged    on   much    more    plausible    grounds.     The 
treaty  of  peace,  it  was  said,  had  deprived  the  military 
governor   of    his    legal   powers.      He   was    merely   au 
usurper.     California  was  a  part  of  United  States  ter- 
ritory.    In  the  absence  of  congressional  action,  the  peo- 
ple had  a  right  to  meet  and  to  legislate  at  their  pleasure. 
This  right  they  derived  from  the  nature  of  man,  and 
from  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.     The  former 
has  guarantied  to  man  the  right  to  govern  himself  ac- 
cording to  the  principles  of   justice.     The   latter,    the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  as  was  asserted,  guar- 
antied to  the  inhabitants  of  America  a  republican,  and 
not  a  military,  government,  at  least  in  time  of  peace. 
Had  Congress  furnished  to  the  people  a  territorial  gov- 
ernment, the  people  would  be  bound  to  accept  the  same. 
But  in  the  absence  of  such  action,  the  popular  wiQ,  put- 
ting itself  under  the  sole  restraint  of  the  Constitution, 
must  reign  supreme.     This  theory,  as  we  see,  was  not 
without  its  vagueness.     Exactly  how  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  could  be  interpreted  as  including  this 
form  of  the  doctrine  of  popular  sovereignty  is  not  clear 
to  me,  nor  was  it  made  clear  in  the  discussions  of  that 
period.     The  Constitution  had   never  contemplated  ex- 
actly the  case  of  this  conquered  California.     The  very 
appeal  to  the  law  of  nature  showed  a  certain  lack  of 
clearness  in  the  settler's  mind  about  the  state  of  the  law 
in  the  statute-books.     Yet  the  settler's   instinct  was  a 


I 


THE   CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  249 


und  one,  however  imperfect  his  theory.  The  time  was 
|n  fact  nearly  ripe  for  an  expression  of  the  popular  will. 

he  settlers  of  1845  and  1846  had  changed  their  rest- 
lessness for  conservatism  in  the  presence  of  the  new- 
comers. The  treaty  of  peace  had  taken  the  land  qne.8- 
tioTw^iTtof  thf!  poAvpr  of  lopal  Ipgnslaiiij-fts ;  and  an  addi- 
tional residence  of  two  years  in  the  country  had  made 
the  immigrants  of  1846,  the  land-hungry  men  of  1847, 
comparatively  sedate  old  inhabitants.  They  felt  them- 
selves in  a  sense  the  true  Californians.  They  regarded 
the  forty-niners  with  a  certain  conservative  dread.  They 
had  in  very  many  cases  come  to  own  land  themselves, 
by  purchase  from  the  claimants  under  Mexican  grants. 
They  were  now  in  most  cases,  when  compared  with  the 
forty-niners,  no  longer  revolutionary  agitators,  but  sober 
American  advocates  of  the  older  order  of  things,  and 
opponents  of  the  spoliation  that  they  had  before  threat- 
ened. Therefore  the  squatter  legislature  of  the  Hast- 
ings plan  was  already  a  less  imminent  danger,  although 
Americans  had  by  no  means  sincerely  determined  as  yet 
to  recognize  the  just  claims  of  all  native  Californians. 
Meanwhile,  if  the  danger  of  violent  and  wholly  one-sided 
legislation  was  already  less,  the  danger  of  violent  and 
wholly  confused  popular  movements  in  default  of  legis- 
lation grew  daily  greater.  And  no  way  seemed  open, 
even  in  the  autumn  of  1848,  much  more  in  the  spring 
and  summer  of  1849,  save  to  call  upon  the  American 
political  instinct  to  express  itself  in  the  form  of  an  or- 
ganized government,   v^ 

But  the  chief  opposing  view  of  California's  legal  status 
has  to  be  mentioned.  That  is  the  view  maintained  by 
Mason  and  then  by  General  Riley,  the  last  territorial 
governor  of  California.     R'iey's  view  was  of  course  in 


250  CALIFORNIA. 

accord  with  his  instructions.  It  is  well-known,  and  shall 
be  stated  in  Riley's  own  words  :  — 

"  The  laws  of  California,  not  inconsistent  with  .the 
laws,  constitution,  and  treaties  of  the  United  States,  are 
still  in  force,  and  must  continue  in  force  till  changed  by- 
competent  authority.  Whatever  may  be  thought  of  the 
right  of  the  people  to  temporarily  replace  the  olBficers  of 
the  existing  government  by  others  appointed  by  a  pro- 
visional territorial  legislature,  there  can  be  no  question 
that  the  existing  laws  of  the  country  must  continue  in 
force  till  replaced  by  others  made  and  enacted  by  com- 
petent power.  That  power,  by  the  treaty  of  peace,  as 
well  as  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  is  vested  in  Con- 
gress. The  situation  of  California  in  this  respect  is  very 
different  from  that  of  Oregon.  The  latter  was  without 
laws,  while  the  former  has  a  system  of  laws,  which, 
though  somewhat  defective,  and  requiring  many  changes 
and  amendments,  must  continue  in  force  till  repealed  by 
competent  legislative  power.  The  situation  of  California 
is  almost  identical  with  that  of  Louisiana,  and  the  decis- 
ions of  the  Supreme  Court  in  recognizing  the  validity  of 
the  laws  which  existed  in  that  country  previous  to  its 
annexation  to  the  United  States,  were  not  inconsistent 
with  the  constitution  and  laws  of  the  United  States,  or 
repealed  by  legitimate  legislative  enactments,  furnish  us 
a  clear  and  safe  guidi^  in  our  present  situation.  It  is 
important  that  citizens  should  understand  this  fact,  so  as 
not  to  endanger  their  property  and  involve  themselves  in 
useless  and  expensive  litigation,  by  giving  countenance 
to  persons  claiming  authority  which  is  not  given  them 
by  law,  and  by  putting  faith  in  laws  which  can  never  be 
recognized  by  legitimate  courts." 

That  is,  as  one  sees,  according  to  Riley's  vie^w,  Stoct 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  251 

ton's  proclamation  concerning  the  "  former  laws  and 
usages"  remained  as  valid  a  statement  of  the  situation 
of  California  after  the  treaty  of  peace  as  it  had  been  be- 
fore the  treaty  of  peace.  In  consequence  the  chief  mil- 
itary officer  present  is  still  governor  of  the  territory,  only 
now  he  is  civil,  and  not  military,  governor.^ 

That  Riley's  view,  although  probably  legally  the  cor^ 
rect  view,  was  not  indubitable,  even  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  government  itself,  appears  from  two  curious 
facts.  The  first  is  that  the  government,  while  it  thus 
instructed  Riley  as  to  his  legal  position,  held  and  ex- 
pressed another  and  an  opposing  view  of  the  nature  of 
his  powers.  The  second  is  that  Riley  himself,  when  the 
constitutional  convention  had  once  finished  its  work, 
simply  abandoned  his  position,  by  giving  up  to  the  au- 
thorities that  the  people  elected  this  power  and  responsi- 
bility which  he  had  affirmed  to  be  legally  his  own.  For 
nothing  is  clearer  than  that  an  officer  legally  responsi- 
ble for  the  government  of  a  territory  cannot  consistently 
abandon  his  post,  unless  an  equally  legal  authority  is 
ready  to  succeed  him. 

As  to  the  first  point,  the  alternative  theory  which  the 

1  Riley's  view  is  well  summed  up  in  Burnett's  Reminiscences  of  an 
Old  Pioneer  (New  York,  1880),  p.  329.  Burnett's  account  of  this 
whole  controversy  is  one  of  the  best  extant,  outside  of  the  official  rec- 
ord as  preserved  in  theCal.  Docs,  of  1850,  and  apart  from  Ihe  contem- 
porary numbers  of  the  Alta  California.  Burnett  himself  represented 
the  settler's  view.  Riley's  own  statement  of  the  case,  as  quoted  above, 
is  to  be  found  in  the  Cal.  Docs,  of  1850  (as  cited),  p.  777.  A  clear 
statement  of  the  settler's  view  is  further  to  be  found  in  the  speech  of 
C.  T.  Botts,  in  the  Debates  of  the  Constitutional  Convention  of  Cali- 
fornia^ p.  11.  As  to  the  technical  merits  of  the  case,  ably  disputed 
as  it  was,  I  have  no  authority  of  my  own  to  decide,  but  I  am  ad- 
vised by  good  authority  that  Riley's  position,  in  so  far  as  he  con- 
sistently held  to  iv,  was  no  doubt  legally  sounder  than  the  opposing 
views. 


252  CALIFORNIA, 

administration  held  appears  in  two  documents.  One  is 
the  p^esi^^nt's-naessage- to- Congress  J  in  Dficember,  1848, 
which  declares  that  "  upon  the  exchange  of  ratifications 
of  the  treaty  of  peace  with  Mexico  on  the  30th  of 
May  last,  the  temporary  governments  which  had  been 
established  over  New  Mexico  and  California  by  our  mil- 
itary and  naval  commanders,  by  virtue  of  the  rights  of 
war,  ceased  to  derive  any  obligatory  force  from  that 
source  of  authority  ;  and  having  been  ceded  to  the 
United  States,  all  government  and  control  over  them 
under  the  authority  of  Mexico  had  ceased  to  exist.  Im- 
pressed with  the  necessity  of  establishing  territorial 
governments  over  them,  I  recommended  the  subject  to 
the  favorable  consideration  of  Congress  in  my  message 
communicating  the  ratification  of  peace,  on  the  6th  of 
July  last,  and  invoked  their  action  at  that  session. 
Congress  adjourned  without  making  any  provision  for 
their  government.  The  inhabitants,  by  the  transfer  of 
their  country,  had  become  entitled  to  the  benefits  of  our 
laws  and  constitution,  and  yet  were  left  without  any 
regularly  organized  government.  Since  that  time,  the 
very  limited  power  possessed  by  the  executive  has  been 
exercised  to  preserve  and  protect  them  from  the  inevi- 
table consequences  of  a  state  of  anarchy.  The  only 
government  which  remained  was  that  established  by 
the  military  authority  during  the  war.  Regarding  this 
to  he  a  de  facto  government,  and  that  by  the  presumed 
consent  of  the  inhabitants  it  might  be  continued  tempo- 
rarily, they  were  advised  to  conform  and  submit  to  it 
for  the  short  intervening  period  before  Congress  would 
again  assemble  and  could  legislate  on  the  subject.  The 
views  entertained  by  the  executive  on  this  point  are 
contained  in  a  communication  of  the  secretary  of  state, 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  253 

dated  the  7th  of  October  last,  which  was  forwarded 
for  publication  to  California  and  New  Mexico,  a  copy 
of  which  is  herewith  transmitted."  The  letter  of  Buch- 
anan, secretary  of  state,  to  which  reference  is  made  in 
these  last  words,  expresses  this  view  as  follows  :  — 

"  In  the  mean  time,  the  condition  of  the  people  of 
California  is  anomalous,  and  will  require  on  their  part 
the  exercise  of  great  prudence  and  discretion.  By  the 
conclusion  of  the  treaty  of  peace,  the  military  govern- 
ment which  was  established  over  them  under  the  laws 
of  war,  as  recognized  by  the  practice  of  civilized  nations, 
has  ceased  to  derive  its  authority  from  this  source  of 
power.  But  is  there,  for  this  reason,  no  government  in 
California  ?  Are  life,  liberty,  and  property  under  the 
protection  of  no  existing  authorities  ?  This  would  be  a 
singular  phenomenon  in  the  face  of  the  world,  and  espe- 
cially among  American  citizens,  distinguished  as  they  are 
above  all  other  people  for  their  law-abiding  character. 
Fortunately  they  are  not  reduced  to  this  sad  condition. 
The  termination  of  the  war  left  an  existing  government 
—  a  government  c^e/acfo  —  in  full  operation;  and  this 
will  continue,  with  the  presumed  consent  of  the  people, 
until  Congress  shall  provide  for  them  a  territorial  gov- 
ernment. The  great  law  of  necessity  justifies  this  con- 
clusion. The  consent  of  the  people  is  irresistibly  in- 
ferred from,  the  fact  that  no  civilized  community  could 
possibly  desire  to  abrogate  an  existing  government,  when 
the  alternative  presented  would  be  to  place  themselves  in 
a  state  of  anarchy,  beyond  the  protection  of  all  laws, 
and  reduce  them  to  the  unhappy  necessity  of  submitting 
to  the  dominion  of  the  strongest." 

As  to  the  second  point,  if  Riley's  theory,  held  in  ac- 
cordance with  his  instructions,  was  the  correct  one,  then 


) 


254  CALIFORNIA. 

the  people  of  California  not  only  were  unable  to  form  a 
popular  government  without  his  consent,  but  had  no 
right,  even  with  his  consent,  to  begin  their  ovm  state 
government  before  Congress  should  have  admitted  the 
State.  Governor  Riley,  as  chief  executive,  could  indeed 
call  a  convention,  but,  from  his  own  point  of  view,  he 
could  not  authorize  the  actual  formation  of  a  sovereign 
state,  nor  properly  recognize  it  in  advance  of  a  congres- 
sional recognition.  Yet  just  this  he  did,  surrendering 
his  powers  to  the  new  state  government  months  before 
the  admission  of  the  State.  There  was  then  simply  no 
consistently  held  theory  concerning  the  legal  status  of 
California  at  this  critical  moment. 

Yet  the  problem  involved  was,  in  the  spring  and  sum- 
mer of  1849,  no  mere  question  of  theory,  but  an  intensely 
practical  one,  that  threatened  quickly  to  become  very 
serious  indeed.  Here  were  the  people,  with  the  Oregon 
tradition  in  their  minds,  anxious  for  self-government, 
and  loudly  asserting  a  right  of  which  they  could  give  no 
very  definite  theoretical  or  legal  account.  Here  was 
Riley,  with  one  form  of  the  administration  doctrine  in 
his  mouth,  hopefully  transcribing,  translating,  and  pub- 
lishing the  supposed  "  laws  in  force."  Here  was  the 
president,  ordering  through  the  secretary  of  war  that 
Riley  should  take  this  plan  of  explaining  the  law  to  the 
people  of  CaUfornia,  and  himself  meanwhile  making 
through  the  secretary  of  state  a  wholly  different  and 
inconsistent  explanation  of  General  Riley's  powers,  an 
explanation  whereby  the  government  of  CaUfornia  is 
denied  to  be  a  discoverable  actuality,  is  treated  as  a 
mere  presumption,  and  is  based  upon  the  notion  that 
California,  being  between  the  devil  and  the  deep  sea, 
must  get  out  by  the  one  road  that  Providence  has  kindly 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  255 

opened ;  namely,  the  military  government.  Thus  the 
settler  talks  of  the  law  of  nature,  General  Riley  of  Mex- 
ican law,  Secretary  Buchanan  of  the  "presumed  con- 
sent," whatever  that  may  be ;  and  meanwhile  Califor- 
nia society  is  looking  the  devils  of  anarchy  in  the  face, 
and  is  bravely  trying  to  help  itself.  It  was  in  those 
days  that  James  King  of  William,  as  he  later  wrote  in 
the  "  Bulletin,"  heard  people  at  Sutter's  Fort  talking 
over  the  situation,  and  speculative  wanderers  discussing 
in  leisure  moments  before  the  camp-fires  whether  mur-- 
der  could  fairly  be  called  a  crime  any  more  in  Califor^i 
nia,  since  there  was  now  no  law. 

We  have  had  in  the  foregoing  to  speak  of  the  Amer« 
ican  settler's  bigotry  in  the  presence  of  un-American 
institutions,  and  of  his  injustice  to  the  conquered  popu^ 
lation.  When  on  the  contrary  one  turns  to  his  political 
skill,  as  it  showed  itself  in  this  crisis,  one  has,  as  we  are 
all  aware,  nothing  but  praise.  In  fact,  the  instinctive 
political  skill  shown  throughout  this  early  history  is  the 
one  thing  in  early  California  affairs  of  which  we  can 
certainly  feel  quite  justly  proud.  Nearly  all  else  in  the 
early  history  of  California  after  the  country  was  in 
American  hands  is  more  or  less  under  a  cloud,  save,  in- 
deed, so  much  as  fortune  chose  to  make  romantic  and 
charming.  We  shall  see,  hereafter,  how  little  the  politi-r 
cal  skill  itself  was  able  to  cope  with  the  moral  dangers 
of  the  early  days,  and  how  only  after  years  of  toil,  men 
learned  to  supplement  their  instinctive  cleverness  in 
state-making  with  the  necessary  devotion  to  the  more 
commonplace  duties  of  citizenship.  But  viewed  simply 
as  cleverness,  this  quality,  as  it  now  shows  itself,  is 
wholly  admirable. 

The  summer  of  1849  was  full  of  abortive  lesser  at- 


256  CALIFORNIA. 

tempts  at  planning  the  ways  and  means  of  self-govern, 
ment ;  most  of  these  attempts  seem  not  to  have  got 
beyond  the  hmits  of  private  conversation.  Some  people 
freely  talked  about  the  Bear  Flag  and  a  Pacific  repub- 
lic. Others  insisted  that  perfect  loyalty  to  the  govern- 
ment at  Washington  was  consistent  with  the  firmest 
determination  to  resist  all  unconstitutional  military 
government  here.  Riley  repeated,  in  every  possible 
official  way,  that  his  government  was  not  military,  but 
civil  and  legal,  a  necessary  continuation  in  the  present 
of  the  old  Mexican  form  of  administration.  Congress, 
meanwhile,  was  of  no  service,  and  adjourned  in  1849, 
as  it  had  adjourned  the  year  before,  without  having 
done  more  for  this  new  land  than  to  extend  customs 
regulations  over  California,  and  to  establish  a  few  post- 
offices  and  mail-routes.  Why  Congress  thus  hesitated 
is  a  matter  of  well-known  national  history.  The  inter- 
ests of  California  had  to  be  postponed,  while  Congress 
wrangled  over  the  position  of  slavery  in  the  new  ter- 
ritories. Had  the  Southern  party  more  promptly  under- 
taken to  compromise  matters,  it  might  have  been  able  to 
gain  more  for  itself.  The  long  delay  ended  in  the  total 
and  inevitable  loss  of  California  to  the  slave-power. 

As  we  shall  hereafter  see,  all  tliis  political  confusion 
was  at  the  moment  consistent  with  the  prevalence  of 
temporary  good  order.  The  summer  of  1849  was  a 
cheerful  and  a  socially  peaceful  one  throughout  the 
mining  and  commercial  region.  The  southern  part  of 
the  territory,  where  the  native  Californians  lived,  was 
indeed  already  showing  signs  of  the  general  demorali- 
zation that  we  were  in  time  to  inflict  upon  it.  Its  trader 
such  as  there  had  been,  languished,  its  people  were  un- 
welcome in  the  mines,  and  unhappy  at  home.     They 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  257 

had  also  a  natural  and  well-founded  dread  as  to  the 
future  of  their  property,  and  were  suspicious  of  us,  as 
well  as  sometimes  actively  hostile.  But  elsewhere  the 
life  was  busy  and  hopeful,  although  carelessness,  dissi- 
pation, and  absurdly  great  expectations  were  preparing 
the  way  for  a  possible  future  anarchy.  The  state  or- 
ganization was  needed  none  the  less  in  vjeaK-^f  this 
present  temporary  social  prosperity  of  the  country. 
For  there  were  dark  days  ahead. 

As  for  more^-arganized  efforts  at  self-government : 
^wahr-wer^mQ  abortive  legislative  assembly  of  San  Fran- 
cisco, and  similar  attempts  in  Sonoma  and  in  Sacra- 
mento.^ Such  were  also  the  meetings  associated  with 
these  efforts,  wherein  delegates  were  elected  to  meet  in 
a  constitutional  convention  at  San  Jose,  without  any 
authority  from  Governor  Riley.  But  all  such  attempts 
were  not  only  failures  in  themselves,  but  were  super- 
seded by  Riley's  own  proclamation,  issued  June  3, 
1849,^  announcing,  in  accordance  with  his  instructions, 
that  as  Congress  had  adjourned  without  providing  "  a 
new  government  for  this  country  to  replace  that  which 
existed  on  the  annexation  of  California  to  the  United 
States,"  it  had  become  "  our  imperative  duty  to  take 
some  active  means  to  provide  for  the  existing  wants  of 
the  country ; "  and  calling  upon  the  people  to  elect  a 
convention  to  form  a  state  constitution.     In  the  mean- 

1  See  the  Alta  for  March  1,  1849,  for  reports  from  Sacramento  and 
Sonoma  of  meetings  to  organize  district  governments.  For  the  San 
Francisco  meetings  and  undertakings,  see  the  Annals,  pp.  208,  218, 
220,  and  pp.  221,  sqq.  For  the  general  situation  and  an  account  of 
these  movements,  see  also  Burnett  {loc.  cit.).  Tuthill,  in  chap.  xx.  of 
his  History,  gives  a  somewhat  detailed  account  of  the  matter  as  dis< 
cussed  in  Congress.     See  also  Cal.  Docs.  pp.  773,  sq. 

2  Cal.  Docs.  pp.  776,  sqq. 

17 


258  CALIFORNIA. 

while  Riley  ordered  elections  under  the  "  former  usages  " 
of  judges  of  superior  jurisdiction,  and  of  other  neces- 
sary officers,  to  hold  office  until  the  state  government 
should  be  completed  and  ready  for  its  work.  And  he 
caused  to  be  published  what  he  regarded  as  the  Mexican 
laws  of  the  territory  still  in  force.^ 

With  hesitation,  and  after  much  murmuring  the  peo- 
ple accepted  Riley's  call,  waived  their  theoretical  objec- 
tion that  he,  as  usurper,  had  no  right  to  make  the  call, 
and  elected  their  delegates  to  the  convention.  And 
thus  the  vexed  question  as  to  the  legal  rights  of  the 
people  of  California  was  solved  by  a  very  illogical  and 
yet  very  sensible  compromise,  which  was  made  accord- 
ing to  no  theoretical  principle  whatsoever.  The  popu- 
lar sovereignty  sentiment  of  the  Oregon  tradition  be- 
came untrue  to  itself,  and  its  upholders  illogically  sub- 
mitted to  General  Riley's  authority  so  far  as  to  go  into 
the  convention  that  he  called  and  authorized,  and  to 
vote  under  such  conditions  as  he  ordained.  General 
Riley,  for  his  part,  very  illogically  sacrificed  the  claim 
that  he  was  the  legal  ruler  of  California,  and  that  he 
was  subject  only  to  the  administration  and  to  congres- 
sional legislation,  by  calling  a  convention  of  the  people, 
and  by  resigning  his  powers  so  soon  as  the  people  had 

1  As  to  the  details  of  this  action,  Riley  was  guided  by  the  advice  of 
his  secretary  of  state,  the  able  and  laborious  Captain  (in  later  years 
General)  H.  W.  Halleck.  Halieck's  labors  in  preparing  the  way  for 
the  convention,  and  in  the  convention  itself,  have  been  well  recog- 
nized and  set  forth  by  Rev.  Mr.  Willey,  in  his  interesting  article  in 
the  Overland  Monthly  for  July,  1872,  entitled  "Recollections  of  Gen- 
eral Halleck." 

For  the  laws  published  by  Riley,  and  for  the  official  summary  of  the 
whole  affair,  as  presented  to  Congress  by  the  senators  and  represen- 
tatives of  California  when  they  first  went  to  Washington,  see  the 
volume  of  the  Debates  of  the  Convention,  Appendix. 


THE  CON dU EST  COMPLETED.  269 

elected  their  own  officers,  and  long  before  the  admission 
of  the  State  by  Congress.  As  for  Buchanan's  beautiful 
little  theory  about  the  "  presumed  consent "  of  the  people 
of  CaUfornia  as  the  source  of  Riley's  authority,  that  theory 
was  soon  utterly  forgotten.  And  so  here  in  California 
was  repeated  that  ancient  proceeding  of  compromise  in 
place  of  adherence  to  abstract  principle  which  has  been 
all  along  so  characteristic  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  in  his  polit- 
ical life.  When  one  sees  how  the  ponderous  machinery 
of  the  constitution  was  soon  aftei'wards  in  order  and 
lightly  ruiming,  notwithstanding  all  this  wearisome  pre- 
liminary wrangling  among  the  master- workmen  about 
plans  and  doctrines,  one  is  strongly  reminded  of  a  cer- 
tain grandly  simple  expression  of  the  spirit  of  English, 
and  in  fact  of  all  Anglo-Saxon  constitutional  history,  an 
expression  contained  in  the  most  profound  and  familiar 
of  nursery  tales  ;  namely,  in  the  one  in  which  there  is  first 
a  seemingly  hopeless  difference  of  opinion  among  the 
characters  about  certain  great  questions  of  principle,  so 
that  a,  time  of  tragic  uncertainty  follows,  until  of  a  sud- 
den, a  compromise  being  happily  suggested,  the  mouse 
begins  to  gnaw  the  rope,  the  rope  to  hang  the  butcher, 
and  so  all  else  to  go  well.  This  tale  is  a  figure  of  the 
workings  of  Anglo-Saxon  government^^-^" 


X.  THE  CONSTITUTIONAL  CONVENTION  AND  ITS  OUTCOME. 

So  the  convention  assembled  at  Monterey,  finding  no 
quorum  September  1,  1849,  but  beginning  its  organiza- 
tion September  3.  This  first  business  was  rather  slowly 
accomplished,  three  days  being  consumed  in  purely  pre- 
liminary work,  and  yet  more  time  being  lost  subsequently 
in  subsidiary  matters,  before  very  much  was  accomplished. 
The  convention  had  of  course  great  difficulties  concern- 


260 


CALIFORNIA. 


ing  printing  and  engrossment.  Other  physical  diflficul- 
ties  are  hardly  worth  dwelling  on  here.  The  members 
of  the  convention  nearly  all  brought  with  them  their 
blankets  to  Monterey ;  like  the  foxes  and  the  birds, 
they  had  to  look  for  holes  and  nests,  and  like  the  foxes 
and  birds,  they  finally  found  where  to  bestow  themselves. 
They  speak  highly  of  the  hospitality  of  the  little  town. 
Larkin  invited  one  member  to  lunch  and  one  to  dinner 
every  day,  and  it  is  to  be  presumed  that  at  least  that 
member  got  in  each  case  a  good  meal.  The  rest  ex- 
hibited no  small  patience,  on  the  whole,  although  occa- 
sionally the  records  of  the  votes  show  many  absentees. 


BB8IDENCE. 

OCCUPATION. 

AOS. 

1 

g 

t 

^ 

KATrvrry. 

ii 

1 

} 

^ 

■^ 

5 

? 

t 

j= 

rf» 

i 

o 

"2  2 

g 

>, 

■g 

1' 

§S 

2 

2 

1 

4 

3 

1 

2 

o 
8 

o 

o 

s 

f  New  York  . 

11 

8 

3 

Pennsylvania  «S 

k 

22 

New  Jersey 

2 

2 

_ 

_ 

_ 

1 

1 

2 

- 

New  England 

6 

5 

1 

2 

2 

2 

- 

2 

2 

1 

1 

[Ohio       .    . 

3 

1 

2 

1 

- 

1 

1 

3 

- 

f  Missouri      . 

1 

1 

_ 

_ 

_ 

1 

_ 

1 

_ 

_ 

Kentucky 

3 

1 

2 

_ 

1 

1 

1 

1 

_ 

2 

,.  J  Virginia 
"i  Maryland 

3 

3 

_ 

_ 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

6 

2 

3 

2 

- 

2 

1 

1 

1 

Florida  . 

1 

_ 

1 

_ 

_ 

_ 

1 

1 

_ 

Tennessee 

1 

- 

1 

_ 

1 

_ 

- 

1 

California     . 

7 

7 

_ 

2 

_ 

5 

_ 

2 

4 

Foreign  Lands  . 

6 

6 

- 

1 

8 

2 
11 

1 
14 

1 
15 

1 
9 

2 
23 

2 
12 

Totals     .    . 

48 

36 

13 

THE   CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  261 

Bayard  Taylor  in  his  "  El  Dorado  "  describes  the  whole 
body  with  great  interest  and  delight.  Their  own  table 
of  ages,  etc.,  is  the  basis  upon  which  I  have  constructed 
the  above  statistical  analysis  of  the  social  and  political 
character  of  the  convention,  which  I  give  in  a  form  quite 
different  from  theirs  (cf.  "  Debates,"  p.  478). 

To  understand  the  work  of  the  convention,  one  must 
remember  the  conflicting  forces  present,  as  indicated  by 
this  table,  and  by  the  debates.  A  strong  cenire  (if  one 
may  transfer  to  the  body  a  foreign  phrase)  was  made 
up  of  the  Americans  of  the  interregnum.  They  had 
various  personal  peculiarities,  and  occasionally  aired 
their  private  views  at  excessive  length ;  nor  were  they 
men  of  any  great  likeness  of  training.  But  they  had  in 
common  a  lively  interest  in  a  permanent  and  strong 
government  in  California  ;  they  all  had  a  concern  in 
California,  that  was  prior  in  origin  to  the  gold  discovery, 
and  that  seemed  apt  to  outlast  any  immediate  good  for- 
tunes or  reverses  that  might  come  to  them  in  conse- 
quence of  this  discovery.  They  were  fearful  of  the 
new-coming  population,  in  case  it  were  not  soon  re- 
strained by  fixed  laws.  And  they  were  indisposed  to 
permit  the  sectional  interests  of  older  States  to  interfere 
with  the  present^^tiny  of  California.  What  one  may 
call  an  ^xtnem^^^  was  meanwhile  composed  of  the 
old  Californians,  among  whom  must  be  included  some 
of  the  older  foreign  residents.  These  men  came  to  the 
convention  as  strict  conservatives,  loving  the  old  order 
of  things,  wholly  opposed  to  the  formation  of  any  state 
government,  preferring  a  territorial  organization,  and 
anxious  for  a  political  separation  of  their  own  section 
from  the  northern  half  of  the  territory.  When  they 
discovered  theii*  original  plans  to  be  impracticable,  they 


262  CALIFORNIA. 

were  for  the  time  at  sea,  until  they  found  a  new  and 
unexpected,  although  somewhat  covert  and  certainly 
very  insincere  ally. 

This  was  in  the  extreme  left,  as,  keeping  up  tiie  form 
already  used,  we  may  call  the  small  but  very  ably  led 
section  of  extreme  Southerners.  These  men,  of  whom 
B.  F.  Moore  of  Florida  was  the  one  most  unpleasantly 
noticeable,  and  among  whom  Jones  of  Louisiana  (by 
birth  a  Kentuckian)  was  also  noteworthy,  were  led  by 
the  most  interesting  politician  in  the  convention,  the 
since  famous,  and  recently  deceased,  W.  M.  Gwin. 
Their  undoubted  object  was,  not  so  much  to  give  over 
any  part  of  California  at  once  to  slavery,  since  this 
hurrying  life  of  the  gold-seekers  wholly  forbade  any 
present  consideration  of  such  a  plan,  but  to  prepare  the 
way  for  a  future  overthrow  of  the  now  paramount 
Northern  influence  in  the  territory,  and  so  to  make  pos- 
sible an  ultimate  division  of  the  State,  in  case  the  south- 
ern part  should  prove  to  be  adapted  to  slave  life. 

The  very  existence  of  this  plan  has  been  frequently 
denied ;  but  one  who  reads  the  debates  can  have  little 
doubt  of  it.  The  interest  of  the  discussions  lies  largely 
in  the  marvelous  skill  with  whidh  Gwin,  although  un- 
able to  carry  his  point,  still  in  minor  matters  directed 
the  course  of  the  proceedings,  ^^^k^adually  gathered 
about  himself  such  a  following  tim;  although  he  was 
baffled  in  his  immediate  objects,  he  at  all  events  made 
himself  a  power  in  the  convention,  and  assured  for  him- 
self a  prominent  position  in  the  future  political  life  of 
the  State.  No  other  man  in  the  convention  approaches 
him  in  impressiveness  and  in  skill,  as  shown  in  these  de- 
bates. A  monograph  on  the  convention  long  enough  to 
give  the  time  for  unravehng  the  intricate  skein  of  the 


THE  CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  263 

debates  would  read  in  large  part  like  a  chapter  from 
the  political  biography  of  one  who  intellectually  was  the 
most  admirable  of  all  the  unprincipled  political  in- 
triguers in  the  history  of  California. 

Of  Gwin  himself  much  has  been  written,  although 
not  with  reference  to  his  work  in  the  convention.  Mr. 
O'Meara's  generally  admirable  monograph  on  "  Brod- 
erick  and  Gwin  "  (San  Francisco,  1881)  has  discussed 
the  later  political  life  of  the  great  schemer  during  the 
period  of  his  struggle  with  his  picturesque,  heroic,  and 
almost  equally  unprincipled  foe,  that  remarkable  repre- 
sentative of  the  Irish- American  political  character,  Da- 
vid Broderick.  The  civil  war  proved  to  be  Gwin's  polit- 
ical grave.  ^  His  public  life  in  the  South  and  in  Mexico 
was  thenceforth  a  failure,  and  his  recent  death  has  closed 
a  long  period  of  inactivity.  Gwin  had  before  1849 
already  been  in  the  House  of  Representatives  at  Wash- 
ington. In  California  he  appeared  in  1849,  just  in  time 
to  take  part  in  the  trial  of  the  "  Hounds  "  in  San  Fran- 
cisco.^ This  event  brought  him  into  public  notice. 
He  had  come  to  the  territory  with  the  avowed  deter- 
mination to  be  a  senator  from  the  new  State.  He  was 
glad,  therefore,  to  find  himself  a  man  of  mark  forthwith, 
and  took  advantage  of  the  fact  to  get  himself  at  once 
elected  to  the  c^^^ion.  To  Monterey  he  went, 
armed  with  copie^^r  a  printed  constitution  ;  namely, 
that  of.  the  State  of  Iowa,  in  which  he  intended  to  make 
some  amendments,  but  which  he  plainly  regarded  as  an 
instrument  that  would  give  him  especial  authority  in  the 
convention.  For  this  body,  as  he  knew,  would  be  with- 
out printing-press.^     He  also  intended,  as  the  survivors 

1  Of  the  **  Hounds  "  we  shall  hear  a  little  hereafter,  in  another  con« 
nection. 

2  See  bis  own  account,  Delates,  p.  24.     Also  Mr.  E.  O.  Crosby'v 


264  CALIFORNIA. 

of  the  convention  say,  to  get  himself  elected  president 
of  the  convention.  But  the  men  of  the  interregnum 
chose  Semple  instead,  whose  eloquence  was  thereby  a 
trifle  checked.^  Gwin  was  undaunted.  In  the  "  Com- 
mittee on  the  plan  of  a  constitution,"  he  took  a  prominent 
part,  and,  in  the  early  debates,  was  already  noteworthy, 
always  seeming  conciliatory,  thoughtful,  learned,  and 
reasonable.  He  above  all  avoided  directly  broaching 
sectional  topics,  or  matters  that  could  arouse  jealousy 
between  classes  of  the  people.  When  McCarver,  who 
represented  the  Oregon  tradition,  with  its  hatred  of  a  free 
negro  population,  proposed  in  committee  of  the  whole  to 
supplement  the  clause  forbidding  negro  slavery  in  Cal- 
ifornia (a  clause  which  had  already  been  unanimously 
adopted  in  committee  without  debate)  by  another  clause 
excluding  from  the  state  free  negroes,  Gwin  let  the  men 
of  the  interregnum  talk  this  matter  over  at  their  leisure, 
but  himself  said  nothing.  The  clause  of  McCarver 
passed  in  committee,  but  only  to  be  overthrown  later  in 
the  house,  and  by  a  vote  that,  so  far  as  it  was  not  com- 
posed of  the  men  of  the  interregnum,  would  seem  to 
have  been  organized  almost  altogether  outside  of  the 
proceedings  of  the  convention,  and  that  remained  to  the 
end  comparatively  silent  on  thi^jaatter.  Gwin  was  in 
this  silent  majority.  ^^^ 

But  the  true  purposes  of  the  master  began  to  appear 
when  the  great  topic  of  the  boundary  of  the  future  State 

8tatement,  B.  MS.,  a  most  valuable  sketch  of  the  convention  by  a 
Burvivinp:  member. 

1  Debates,  p.  18.  As  Semple  took  the  chair,  he  made  a  "few  re- 
marks," saj'inf?  among  other  things:  "The  eyes  of  all  Europe  are 
now  directed  toward  California."  With  this  proud  consciousness  he 
sat  down,  and  no  doubt  looked  every  inch  a  president.  He  made  in 
fact  a  very  good  one. 


\ 

THE   CONQUEST   COMPLETED.  265 

came  up.  Here  was  a  chance  for  him  both  to  join  to- 
gether the  two  extreme  wings  of  the  convention,  by  con- 
ciliating the  Californians,  who,  so  far,  had  suspected  him, 
and  to  prevent  the  Northern  party  from  acquiring  too 
great  a  control  on  the  coast.  Wholly  fatal  to  the  plans 
of  Gwin's  party  it  would  have  been  either  to  attempt  to 
introduce  slavery  into  the  constitution  directly,  or  to 
have  proposed  an  immediate  division  of  the  southern 
territory  from  the  northern  half.  The  new-comers, 
even  in  case  they  were  themselves  violent  Southerners, 
had,  in  general,  no  desire  to  see  slavery  introduced  for 
the  present  into  the  unsettled  gold-mining  community. 
And  the  men  of  the  interregnum  were  altogether  op- 
posed to  any  thought  of  a  division  of  the  inhabited  ter- 
ritory, in  whose  conquest  they  had  taken  part.  Any 
effort,  under  these  circumstances,  to  affect  the  course  of 
events  by  direct  means  would  have  been  fatal  to  Gwin's 
political  aspirations,  as  well  as  to  the  cause  that  he  no 
doubt  had  at  heart.  One  thing,  however,  remained. 
The  Northern  party  might  be  prevented  from  carrying 
out  the  very  natural  plan  of  limiting  the  boundaries 
of  the  State  to  the  inhabited  portions  of  the  territory 
and  to  the  Sierra  region.  The  vast  unknown  country 
beyond,  extending  to  the  Rocky  Mountains,  —  this  the 
men  of  the  interregnum  were  inclined  to  cut  off  once 
for  all,  although  in  theory  it  belonged  to  California.  If 
they  succeeded  in  this  purpose,  however,  then  a  compact 
State  would  be  formed,  having  a  certain  geographical 
unity,  and  perhaps  resisting  further  efforts  to  divide 
it.  It  would  have  the  whole  frontage  on  the  ocean,  it 
would  be  a  free  State,  and  it  would  be  a  strong  State, 
rendering  the  unknown  territory  eastward  almost  cer- 
tainly worthless  to  the    Southern  party  in  the  future. 


266  CALIFORNIA. 

Might  not  all  this  be  prevented  ?  Might  not  one  insist 
for  the  moment  upon  keeping  the  territorial  boundaries 
of  California  intact  ?  Might  not  one  thus  insist  on  go- 
ing to  Congress  with  a  State  covering  this  whole  vast 
region  (wherein  are  now  Nevada  and  Utah  and  a  large 
part  of  Arizona)  ?  Might  not  one  consequently  secure 
under  any  circumstances  an  important  advantage  to  the 
Southern  party  ?  For,  first,  if,  as  was  possible,  Con- 
gress should  refuse  to  admit  the  whole  of  this  great 
State,  and  should  determine  to  divide  it  into  a  northern 
and  a  southern  half,  the  desired  result  would  forthwith 
be  secured.  But  one  need  not  rely  upon  that.'^  Far 
more  important  for  the  interests  of  the  Southern  party 
would  be  the  certainty  that  this  great  State,  if  it  was 
once  admitted,  would,  in  time,  fall  to  pieces  ;  and  the 
equally  manifest  certainty  that,  in  this  falling  to  pieces, 
a  division  of  the  State  that  would  cut  part  of  it  off  from 
the  ocean  would  be  sure  to  be  deemed  unjust.  For,  in 
view  of  these  considerations,  such  a  division  of  the  over- 
grown State  would  take  place  as  would  give  the  South- 
ern party  their  fair  chance  to  introduce  slavery  into  the 
southern  half  of  California,  in  case  such  introduction 
should  ever  be  found  profitable.^ 

1  And  Gwin  did  not  rely  upon  it,  as  he  actually  accepted  Halleck's 
proviso,  which  proposed  to  permit  the  state  legislature  to  accept  from 
Congress  a  limitation  of  boundary  on  the  east,  but  declined  to  em- 
power the  legislature  to  accept  a  division  into  northern  and  southern 
halves.  Yet  Gwin  must  have  known  that  to  carry  to  Congress  a  very 
large  State  might  ver^'  easily  lead  to  an  ultimate  division  of  the  same, 
before  admission,  into  a  northern  and  southern  half.  For  if  Congress 
refused  to  admit  the  State  until  such  division  were  made,  the  people 
•would  be  apt,  in  the  end,  to  submit;  and  the  bigger  the  territory  in- 
cluded, the  more  probable  would  be  such  a  refusal. 

2  For  remarks  of  Gwin,  showing  that  he  had  this  plan  in  mind,  see 
Debatet,  p.  169.     "If  we  include  boundary  enough  for  several  Statei^ 


The  natiT 


THE   CONQUEST  COMPLETED.  267 


le  native  Callfornian  members,  however,  were  evi- 
dently approachable  upon  this  matter.  As  people  in- 
terested in  the  old  order  of  things,  they  were  glad  to 
vote  for  the  whole  of  old  California  as  a  State,  so  long 
as  their  own  much  desired  separation  of  their  section 
from  the  rest  could  not  be  carried  out.  So  they  will- 
ingly joined  in  rejecting  any  new  limitation  of  the  old 
boundary  to  the  eastward.  Moreover,  they  could  easily 
be  brought  to  understand  their  own  advantage.  This 
present  lavish  offer  of  the  one  great  State  to  the  Union 
meant,  as  they  well  knew,  a  good  chance  of  more  future 
freedom  to  themselves,  through  the  division  of  the  State, 
and  the  formation  of  a  little  State  or  Territory  for  their 
own  benefit.  Gwin  and  Jones  very  cleverly  appeased 
them  further  by  together  introducing  a  taxation  article 
that  was  supposed  to  promise  to  work  in  their  inter- 
it  is  competent  for  the  people  and  the  State  of  California  to  divide  it 
hereafter."  And,  p.  196:  "I  have  not  the  remotest  idea  that  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States  would  give  us  this  great  extent  of 
boundary  if  it  was  expected  that  it  should  remain  one  State.  And 
when  gentlemen  say  that  they  never  will  give  up  one  inch  of  the  Pa- 
cific coast,  they  say  what  they  cannot  carry  out.  So  far  as  I  am  con- 
cerned, I  should  like  to  see  six  States  fronting  on  the  Pacific  in  Cali- 
fornia. I  want  the  additional  power  in  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  of  twelve  senators  instead  of  four ;  for  it  is  notorious^,  sir,  that 
the  State  of  Delaware,  smaller  than  our  smallest  district,  has  as  much 
power  in  the  Senate  as  the  great  State  of  New  York.  It  is  not  the 
passage  of  a  bill  through  the  House  of  Representatives  that  makes  a 
law ;  that  bill  has  to  go  through  the  Senate,  and  in  that  body  the 
State  of  Delaware  has  as  much  power  as  the  State  of  New  York.  And 
the  past  history  of  our  country,  sir,  develops  the  fact  that  we  will 
have  State  upon  State  here,  —  probably  as  many  as  on  the  Atlantic 
side,  —  and  as  we  accumulate  States  we  accumulate  strength;  our  in- 
stitutions become  more  powerful  to  do  good  and  not  to  do  evil.  I  have 
no  doubt  the  time  will  come  when  we  will  have  twenty  States  this 
side  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  I  want  the  power,  sir,  and  the  popu- 
lation.  When  the  population  comes,  they  will  require  that  this  State 
shallbe  divided." 


268  CALIFORNIA. 

est.  The  Californians  were  thus  captured,  and  readily 
voted  for  Gwin's  proposition.  How  much  Gwin  really- 
loved  them,  the  Land  Act  of  1851,  and  Gwin's  infa- 
mous supplementary  Land  Bill  of  1852  will  sufficiently 
show  us. 

Oddly  enough,  however,  the  Gwin  plan  received  some 
cooperation  in  the  convention  from  the  least  expected 
quarter,  namely,  from  Riley's  secretary,  HaUeck,  and 
from  the  other  administration  agents  in  California, 
whose  influence  in  the  convention  was  decided,  although 
their  votes  were  few.  Their  purpose,  indeed,  was  not 
Gwin's  ;  and  it  was  a  very  odd  one.  Thomas  Butler 
King,  a  direct  representative  of  the  administration,  who 
had  come  to  California  on  a  tour  of  observation,  to  make 
a  report  on  the  condition  and  resources  of  California,  a 
report  which  was  later  printed,  and  who,  meanwhile, 
expressed  in  private  the  president's  views  on  topics  con- 
nected with  the  convention,  had  said  to  some  of  the 
members,  —  to  Semple  among  the  rest,  —  "  For  God's 
sake,  leave  us  no  territory  to  legislate  upon  in  Con- 
gress !  "  That  is,  as  he  meant  to  be  understood,  "  re- 
lieve us  from  the  need  of  further  discussion  about  slavery 
in  the  territories  by  presenting  to  us  a  complete  Califor- 
nia, ready  for  admission,  extending  to  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains, and  excluding  from  its  boundaries  slavery."  The 
ostrich-like  innocence  of  this  plan  of  the  Whig  admin- 
istration of  Taylor  —  which  had  sent  out  poor  Butler 
King  to  w^ander  about  in  a  land  that  he  never  under- 
stood, and  to  express  views  that  never  helped  anybody 
—  is  plain  enough.  But  votes  were  votes,  and  Gwin 
rejoiced  in  an  alliance  with  HaUeck,  —  an  alliance  that, 
once  for  all,  seemed  to  prove  to  the  Northern  public  in 
California,  whose  votes,  also,  Gwin,  as  senatorial  candi- 


""^ate,  mi 


THE   CONQUEST  COMPLEIJeD.  269 


tate,  might  one  day  need,  that  Gwin  himself  had  never 
intrigued  on  behalf  of  slavery.  For  ijere  was  a  Whig 
administration,  in  its  imbecility,  instructing  its  agents  to 
do  just  what  Gwin  himself  had  planned. 

The  plan,  then,  seemed  sure  to  succeed,  and  twice  it 
secured  a  majority  of  votes,  after  long  debate, —  once  in 
committee,  once  in  the  house.  But  it  failed  at  last, 
through  the  praiseworthy  firmness  of  the  men  of  the  in- 
terregnum, who,  driven  to  the  wall,  finally  made  clear 
that  they  were  ready  to  break  up  the  convention  rather 
than  to  submit  to  what  they  regarded  as  a  permanently 
mischievous  act.  C.  T.  Botts,  himself  a  Virginian,  but 
always,  in  this  convention,  disposed  to  go  with  the  typi- 
cal men  of  the  interregnum  (men  such  as  Hastings, 
Semple,  Brown,  McCarver,^  McDougal,  Price,  Snyder, 
and  the  rest),  was  a  leader  in  this  firm  opposition.  The 
result  was,  that  a  spirit  of  compromise  was  once  more 
developed,  and  Gwin's  plan  had  to  be  given  up  in  favor 
of  the  present  boundary  of  California.  But  the  effort, 
although  it  failed,  was  an  important  one.  It  first 
showed  Gwin's  skill.  He  had  brought  over  to  his  side 
the  Californian  representatives,  who  had  at  the  outset 
suspected  him,  and  whom  he  himself  so  little  loved  that 
he  was  quite  capable,  as  events  showed,  of  undertaking 
to  despoil  them,  in  legal  fashion,  of  their  lands. 

The  boundary  question  sufficiently  showed  the  char- 
acter of  the  forces  at  work  in  the  convention.  Never- 
theless the  body  was,  notwithstanding  its  inner  hostili- 
ties, a  comparatively  able  and  patriotic  group  of  men, 
and  in  questions  not  directly  involving  sectional  prob- 

1  McCarver,  an  Oregon  man,  belongs  in  the  list,  although  he  had 
been  in  California  but  a  year.  For  the  scene  in  convention  at  the 
irisis  >of  the  struggle,  see  Debates,  p.  440. 


270  CALIFORNIA. 

lems  it  devoted  itseK  with  earnestness  to  its  great  task. 
Cruder  political  notions  appeared  but  little  in  its  delib- 
erations, and  when  they  appeared,  instinct  quietly  ig- 
nored what  spoken  argument  would  often  have  found 
it  hard  to  refute  in  any  such  way  as  to  convert  the  ad- 
vocates of  the  political  errors  involved.  The  results 
were  thus  generally  wise.  In  general  character  the 
constitution  adopted  followed  that  of  the  State  of  New 
York.  A  noteworthy  feature  was  the  prohibition  of 
any  and  all  charters  to  authorize  banks  of  issue,  a  pro- 
vision ardently  insisted  upon  by  nearly  all  the  members. 
As  is  weU  known,  and  as  has  before  been  said,  the 
clause  prohibiting  slavery  passed  the  convention  by  an 
unanimous  vote. 

The  convention  over,  the  constitution  was  submitted 
by  its  makers  to  the  people,  who  languidly  adopted  it 
by  a' very  small  but  nearly  unanimous  vote,  November 
13,  1849,  and  elected  the  first  state  ofl&cers.  Riley  at 
once  gave  up  his  office  to  the  new  governor,  Burnett, 
although  the  State  was  not  admitted  by  a  wrangling  Con- 
gress until  September  9,  1850.  Thus  began  the  life  of 
a  constitutional  government  that  was  to  continue  for 
thirty  years  without  radical  change  of  its  organic  law. 
The  change,  when  it  came,  was  for  the  worse. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE   STRUGGLE   FOR   ORDER:    SELF-GOVERNMENT,   GOOD- 
HUMOR   AND   VIOLENCE   IN   THE    MINES. 

The  State,  then,  was  triumphantly  created  out  of  the 
very  midst  of  the  troubles  of  the  interregnum,  and  in 
the  excitements  of  the  first  golden  days.  But  the  busy 
scenes  of  early  California  life  give  us,  as  we  follow  their 
events,  little  time  for  quiet  enjoyment  of  the  results  of 
even  the  best  social  undertakings.  The  proclamation  of 
the  sovereign  state  itself  is  only  as  the  sound  of  a  trum- 
pet, signaling  the  beginning  of  the  real  social  battle. 
Anarchy  is  a  thing  of  degrees,  and  its  lesser  degrees 
often  coexist  even  with  the  constitutions  that  are  well- 
conceived  and  popular.  The  California  pioneers  had  now 
to  deal  with  forces,  both  within  themselves  and  in  the 
world  beyond,  that  produced  an  exciting  and  not  blood- 
less struggle  for  order,  some  of  whose  events,  as  they 
took  place  in  the  mines,  in  the  interior  cities,  in  the 
course  of  the  state  politics,  and  in  San  Francisco,  we 
must  try  to  describe,  selecting  what  will  best  illustrate 
the  problems  of  the  time  from  the  great  mass  of  occur- 
rences, and  returning,  where  it  is  necessary,  to  the  rela- 
tion of  some  events  that  were  antecedent  to  those  last 
described.  Of  the  romantic  and  heroic  we  shall  have 
something  to  tell,  as  we  go  on ;  but  much  of  our  story 
will  concern  matters  that  only  the  sternest  and  least  ro- 
mantic realism  can  properly  represent 


272  CALIFORNIA. 


I.    THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF    CALIFORNIA    HISTORY   DURINa 
THE   GOLDEN    DAYS. 

Two  very  familiar  errors  exist  concerning  the  CaKfor* 
nia  of  the  years  between  1848  and  1856,  both  miscon- 
ceptions of  the  era  of  the  struggle  for  order.  One  of 
these  errors  will  have  it  that,  on  the  whole,  there  was  no 
struggle;  while  the  other  affirms  that,  on  the  whole, 
there  was  no  order.  In  fact  there  were  both,  and  their 
union  is  incomprehensible,  save  as  an  historical  progress 
from  lower  to  higher  social  conditions.  Both  the  men- 
tioned errors  find  support,  not  in  authoritative  pioneer 
evidence,  but  in  some  of  the  more  irresponsible  reminis- 
cences of  forgetful  pioneers,  reminiscences  that  express 
little  save  a  desire  to  boast,  either  of  the  marvelous 
probity,  or  of  the  phenomenal  wickedness,  of  their  fel- 
lows in  the  early  days.  Many  pioneers  ^  seem  to  assume 
that,  save  their  own  anecdotes,  no  sound  records  of  the 
early  days  are  extant.  Yet  the  fact  is  that,  valuable  as 
the  honest  man's  memory  must  be,  to  retain  and  convey 
the  coloring  of  the  minds  and  moods  of  individuals  and 
parties,  this  individual  memory  cannot  be  trusted,  in  gen- 
eral, either  for  the  details  of  any  complex  transaction, 
or  for  an  account  of  the  whole  state  of  any  large  and 
mixed  community.  And  one  finds  this  especially  true 
when  one  reads  some  of  these  personal  reminiscences  of 
the  more  forgetful  California  pioneers.  In  one  mood, 
or  with  one  sort  of  experience,  the  pioneer  can  remem- 
ber little  but  the  ardor,  the  high  aims,  the  generosity, 
the  honor,  and  the  good  order  of  the  Californian  com- 
munity.    A  few  gamblers,  a  few  foreign  convicts,  a  few 

1  E.  g.,  the  writer  who  calls  himself  William  Grey,  in  his  Pioneer 
Time*,  San  Francisco,  1881. 


TEE  STRUGGLE  FOR   ORDER.  273 

"  greasers "  there  were,  who  threw  shadows  into  the 
glorious  picture.  But  they  could  not  obscure  it.  On  the 
other  hand,  however,  another  equally  boastful  memory 
revels  in  scenes  of  sanguinary  freedom,  of  lawless  popu- 
lar frenzy,  of  fraud,  of  drunkenness,  of  gaming,  and  of 
murder.  According  to  this  memory  nothing  shall  have 
remained  pure  :  most  ministers  who  happened  to  be 
present  gambled,  society  was  ruled  by  courtesans,  no- 
body looked  twice  at  a  freshly  murdered  man,  every- 
body gayly  joined  in  lynching  any  supposed  thief,  and 
all  alike  rejoiced  in  raptures  of  vicious  liberty.  These 
are  the  two  extreme  views.  You  can  find  numbers  of 
similarly  incomplete  intermediate  views.  The  kaleido- 
scopic effect  of  a  series  of  them  can  be  judged  by  read- 
ing the  conflicting  statements  that,  with  a  rather  unnec- 
essary liberality,  Mr.  Shinn  has  added  to  his  own  much 
more  sober,  rational,  and  well-founded  views,  in  some  of 
the  less  authoritative  citations  in  chapters  xi.  and  xiL 
of  his  "  Mining  Camps." 

But  these  impressions  are,  as  individual  impressions, 
once  for  all  doomed  to  be  unhistorical.  The  experience 
of  one  man  could  never  reveal  the  social  process,  of 
which  his  life  formed  but  one  least  element.  This  pro- 
cess, however,  was  after  all  a  very  simple  though  widely 
extended  moral  process,  the  struggle  of  society  to  im- 
press the  true  dignity  and  majesty  of  its  claims  on  way- 
ward and  blind  individuals,  and  the  struggle  of  the  indi- 
vidual man,  meanwhile,  to  escape^  like  a  fool,  from  his 
moral  obligations  to  society.  This  struggle  is  an  old 
one,  and  old  societies  do  not  avoid  it ;  for  every  man 
without  exception  is  born  to  the  illusion  that  the  moral 
world  is  his  oyster.  But  in  older  societies  each  man  is 
conquered  for  himself,  and  is  forced  in  his  own  time  to 
18 


274  CALIFORNIA. 

give  up  his  fool's  longings  for  liberty,  and  to  do  a  man's 
work  as  he  may,  while  in  a  new  society,  especially  in  one 
made  up  largely  of  men  who  have  left  homes  and  fami- 
lies, who  have  fled  from  before  the  word  of  the  Lord, 
and  have  sought  safety  from  their  old  vexatious  duties  in 
a  golden  paradise,  this  struggle  being  begun  afresh  by 
all  comes  to  the  surface  of  things.  California  was  full 
of  Jonahs,  whose  modest  and  possibly  unprophetic  du- 
ties had  lain  in  their  various  quiet  paths  at  home.  They 
had  found  out  how  to  escape  all  these  duties,  at  least  for 
the  moment,  by  fleeing  over  seas  and  deserts.  Strange 
to  say,  the  ships  laden  with  these  fugitives  sank  not, 
but  bore  them  safely  to  the  new  land.  And  in  the  des- 
erts the  wanderers  by  land  found  an  almost  miraculous 
safety.  The  snares  of  the  god  were,  however,  none  the 
less  well  laid  for  that,  and  these  hasty  feet  were  soon  to 
trip.  Whoever  sought  a  fool's  liberty  here  (as  which 
of  us  has  not  at  some  time  sought  it  somewhere  ?)  was 
soon  to  find  all  of  a  man's  due  bondage  prepared  for 
him,  and  doubtless  much  more.  For  nowhere  and  at 
no  time  are  social  duties  in  the  end  more  painful  or  ex- 
acting than  in  the  tumultuous  days  of  new  countries ; 
just  as  it  is  harder  to  work  for  months  on  a  Vigilance 
Committee  than  once  in  a  lifetime  to  sit  on  a  legal  jury 
in  a  quiet  town. 

What  we  have  here  to  do  is  to  understand  what  forces 
worked  for  and  against  order  in  this  community  of  irre- 
sponsible strangers,  and  how  in  time,  for  their  lonely 
freedom,  was  substituted  the  long  and  wearisome  toil 
that  has  caused  nearly  all  the  men  of  that  pioneer  com- 
munity to  die  before  their  due  season,  or  to  live  even  to- 
day, when  they  do  live  at  all,  the  life  of  poverty  and  dis- 
appointment. Let  us  name  at  the  outset  these  forces  of 
order  and  of  disorder. 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR   ORDER.  275 


The  great  cause  of  the  growth  of  order  in  California 
is  usually  said  to  be  the  undoubtedly  marvelous  political 
talent  of  our  race  and  nation.  And  yet,  important  as  that 
cause  was,  we  must  not  exaggerate  it.  The  very  ease 
with  which  the  State  on  paper  could  be  made  lulled  to 
sleep  the  political  conscience  of  the  ordinary  man,  and 
from  the  outset  gave  too  much  self-confidence  to  the 
community.  The  truly  significant  social  order,  which 
requires  not  only  natural  political  instinct,  but  also  vol- 
untary and  loyal  devotion  to  society,  was  often  rather 
retarded  than  hastened  in  its  coming  by  the  political 
facility  of  the  people.  What  helped  still  more  than 
instinct  was  the  courage,  the  moral  elasticity,  the  teach- 
ableness, of  the  people.  Their  greatest  calamities  they 
learned  to  laugh  at,  their  greatest  blunders  they  soon 
recovered  from ;  and  even  while  they  boasted  of  their 
prowess,  and  denied  their  sins,  they  would  quietly  go 
on  to  correct  their  past  grievous  errors,  good-humored 
and  self-confident  as  ever.  A  people  such  as  this  are  in 
the  long  run  favored  of  heaven,  although  outwardly 
they  show  little  proper  humility  or  contrition.  For  in 
time  they  learn  the  hardest  lessons,  by  dint  of  obstinate 
cheerfulness  in  enduring  their  bitter  experiences,  and  of 
wisdom  in  tacitly  avoiding  their  past  blunders. 

Against  order,  however,  worked  especially  two  ten- 
dencies in  early  California :  one  this  aforementioned 
general  sense  of  irresponsibility,  and  the  other  a  dis- 
eased local  exaggeration  of  our  common  national  feel- 
ing towards  foreigners,  an  exaggeration  for  which  the 
circumstances  of  the  moment  were  partly  responsible. 
The  first  tendency  pioneers  admit,  though  not  in  all  its 
true  magnitude  ;  the  second  they  seldom  recognize  at  all, 
charging  to  the  foreigners  themselves  whatever  trouble 
was  due  to  our  brutal  ill-treatment  of  them. 


276  CALIFORNIA. 

As  for  the  first  tendency,  it  is  the  great  key  to  the 
problem  of  the  worst  troubles  of  early  California.  The 
new-comers,  viewed  as  a  mass,  were  homeless.  They 
sought  wealth,  and  not  a  social  order.  They  were,  for 
the  most  part,  as  Americans,  decently  trained  in  the  du- 
ties of  a  citizen ;  and  as  to  courage  and  energy  they  were 
picked  men,  capable,  when  their  time  should  come  for 
showing  true  manhood,  of  sacrificing  their  vain  hopes, 
and  enduring  everything.  But  their  early  quest  was  at 
all  events  an  unmoral  one ;  and  when  they  neglected 
their  duties  as  freemen,  as  citizens,  and  as  brethren 
among  brethren,  their  quest  became  not  merely  un- 
moral, but  positively  sinful.  And  never  did  the  jour- 
neying pillar,  of  cloud  by  day  and  of  fire  by  night, 
teach  to  the  legendary  wanderers  in  the  desert  more 
unmistakably  by  signs  and  wonders  the  eternal  law, 
than  did  the  fortunes  of  these  early  Californians  dis- 
play to  them,  through  the  very  accidents  of  daily  life, 
the  majesty  of  the  same  law  of  order  and  of  loyalty 
to  society.  In  the  air,  as  it  were,  the  invisible  divine 
net  of  social  duties  hung,  and  descending,  enmeshed  ir- 
resistibly all  these  gay  and  careless  fortune-hunters  even 
while  they  boasted  of  their  freedom.  Every  piece  of 
neglected  social  work  they  had  to  do  over  again,  with 
many  times  the  toil.  Every  slighted  duty  avenged  itself 
relentlessly  on  the  community  that  had  despised  it. 

However,  in  the  early  days,  there  was  also  that  other 
agency  at  work  for  disorder,  whose  influence  is  to  blame 
for  much,  although  not  for  all,  nor  even  for  most,  of  the 
degrada  ion  that  the  new  State  passed  tlirough.  This 
was  a  brutal  tendency,  and  yet  it  was  very  natural, 
and,  like  all  natural  brutality,  it  was  often,  in  any  in- 
dividual man,  a  childishly  innocent  tendency.     It  was  a 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  ORDER.  277 

hearty  American  contempt  for  things  and  institutions 
and  people  that  were  stubbornly  foreign,  and  that  would 
not  conform  themselves  to  American  customs  and  wishes. 
Representatives  of  their  nation  these  gold-seeking  Cali- 
fornian  Americans  were ;  yet  it  remains  true,  and  is, 
imder  the  circumstances,  a  very  natural  result,  that  the 
American  had  nowhere  else,  save  perhaps  as  conqueror 
in  Mexico  itself,  shown  so  blindly  and  brutally  as  he 
often  showed  in  early  California,  his  innate  intoler- 
ance for  whatever  is  stubbornly  foreign.  No  Ameri- 
can of  sense  can  be  proud  when  he  reflects  upon  these 
doings  of  his  countrymen,  both  towards  the  real  for- 
eigners and  towards  those  who  were  usually  confounded 
with  such,  namely,  the  native  Californians.  Least  of 
all  can  a  native  American  Californian,  like  the  author, 
rejoice  to  remember  how  the  community  from  which 
he  sprang  treated  both  their  fellow -intruders  in  the 
land,  and  his  own  fellows,  the  born  citizens  of  this  dear 
soil,  themselves.  All  this  tale  is  one  of  disgrace  to 
our  people.  But  it  is  none  the  less  true,  and  none  the 
less  profitable  to  know.  For  this  hatred  of  foreign- 
ers, this  blind  nativism,  are  we  not  all  alike  born  to 
it  ?  And  what  but  reflection,  and  our  chance  measure 
of  cultivation,  checks  it  in  any  of  us  ? 

If  we  leave  out  the  unprovoked  violence  frequently 
offered  to  foreigners,  we  may  then  say  that  the  well 
known  crises  and  tragedies  of  violent  popular  justice 
during  the  struggle  for  order  were  frequently  neither 
directly  and  in  themselves  crimes  of  the  community,  as 
conservative  people  have  often  considered  them,  nor  yet 
merely  expressions  of  righteous  indignation  on  the  part 
of  an  innocent  and  outraged  society;  but  they  were 
simply  the  outward  symptoms  in  each  case  of  the  jpast 


278  CALIFORNIA. 

popular  crimes  of  disloyalty  to  the  social  order ;  they 
were  social  penalties,  borne  by  the  community  itself, 
even  more  than  by  the  rogues,  for  the  treason  of  care- 


n.    THE   EVOLUTION    OF   DISORDER. 

In  the  mines,  to  be  sure,  naked  fortune  was  a  more 
prominent  agent  than  in  the  cities  or  on  the  coast. 
Plainly  the  first  business  of  a  new  placer  mining  com- 
munity was  not  to  save  itself  socially,  since  only  fortune 
could  detain  for  even  a  week  its  roving  members,  but  to 
get  gold  in  the  most  peaceful  and  rapid  way  possible. 
Yet  this  general  absolution  from  arduous  social  duties 
could  not  be  considered  as  continuing  indefinitely.  The 
time  must  come  when,  if  the  nature  of  the  place  per- 
mitted steady  work,  men  must  prepare  to  dwell  together 
in  numbers,  and  for  a  long  period.  Then  began  the 
genuine  social  problems.  Everybody  who  came  without 
family,  as  a  fortune-hunter  whose  social  interests  were 
elsewhere,  felt  a  selfish  interest  here  in  shirking  serious 
obligations  ;  and  among  such  men  everybody  hoped,  for 
his  own  person,  soon  to  escape  from  the  place.  And 
yet,  if  this  social  laziness  remained  general,  the  effect 
was  simply  inevitable.  There  was  then  no  longer  any 
divine  indulgence  for  the  indolent.  The  social  sins 
avenged  themselves,  the  little  community  rotted  till  its 
rottenness  could  no  longer  be  endured  ;  and  the  struggle 
for  order  began  in  earnest,  and  ended  either  with  the 
triumph  of  order,  and  the  securing  of  permanent  peace, 
or  else  only  when  fortune  sent  all  the  inhabitants  else- 
where, much  sadder  men,  but  sometimes,  alas,  greater 
fools  than  ever,  to  try  the  same  hopeless  social  expert 
ment  elsewhere. 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR    ORDER.  279 

The  social  institutions  of  early  days  in  California  have 
recently  been  studied  in  Mr.  Shinn's  ably  conceived 
book  on  "Mining  Camps."  Mr.  Shinn  has  examined 
only  certain  aspects  of  the  social  life ;  he  has  in  fact 
considered  the  camps  mainly  in  their  first  and  most  sat- 
isfactory aspect,  as  immediate  expressions  of  the  orderly 
instincts  of  American  miners.  That  this  view  of  the 
mining  life  is  correct,  so  far  as  it  goes,  I  doubt  not,  and 
I  am  glad  to  find  it  so  well  and  carefully  stated  as  Mr. 
Shinn  has  stated  it.  Any  one  can  verify  it  at  his  pleas- 
ure by  a  reference  to  the  early  newspapers.  But,  after 
all,  one  who  thus  studies  the  matter  knows  the  mining 
camp,  so  to  speak,  only  in  its  first  intention,  as  it  was  in 
its  early  months,  in  the  flush  of  childish  hopes,  or  under 
simpler  conditions.  The  impression  that  Mr.  Shinn 
leaves  upon  us  gives  us,  therefore,  too  gentle  a  view  of 
the  discipline  to  which  the  gods  persistently  subject  all 
men.  What  good  sense,  clear  wit,  and  a  well-meaning 
and  peaceable  spirit,  could  accomplish  in  establishing  a 
simple  but  very  unstable  order,  any  community  of 
American  miners  did  indeed  quickly  accomplish,  at  the 
very  beginning  of  the  life  of  the  mining  camp.  When 
they  met  on  any  spot  to  mine,  they  were  accustomed,  as 
Mr.  Shinn  shows  us,  in  the  evidence  that  he  has  so  en- 
thusiastically collected,  to  organize  very  quickly  their 
own  rude  and  yet  temporarily  effective  government.  An 
alcalde  or  a  council,  or,  in  the  simplest  case,  merely  the 
called  meeting  of  miners,  decided  disputes ;  and  the 
whole  power  of  the  camp  was  ready  to  support  such  de-r 
cisions.  Two  or  three  of  the  simplest  crimes,  such  as 
murder  and  theft,  were  recognized  in  the  brief  code  of 
laws  that  the  miners'  meeting  often  drew  up,  and  these 
crimes,  once   proved  against  any  man,  met  witii  the 


£80  CALIFORNIA. 

swiftest  punishment,  —  petty  theft  with  flogging  and 
banishment,  graver  crimes  with  death ;  although  every 
accused  man  was  given,  in  all  the  more  orderly  camps, 
the  right  of  a  trial,  and  usually  of  a  jury  trial,  in  the 
presence  of  the  assembled  miners.  In  brief,  the  new 
mining  camp  was  a  little  republic,  practically  independ- 
ent for  a  time  of  the  regular  State  officers,  often  very 
unwilling  to  submit  to  outside  interference  even  with  its 
criminal  justice,  and  well  able  to  keep  its  own  simple 
order  temporarily  intact.  Its  general  peacefulness  well 
exhibited  the  native  Anglo-Saxon  spirit  of  compromise, 
as  well  as  our  most  familiar  American  national  trait, 
namely,  that  already  mentioned  formal  public  good-hu- 
mor, which  you  can  observe  amongst  us  in  any  crowded 
theatre  lobby  or  street-car,  and  which,  while  indicating 
nothing  as  to  the  private  individual  characters  of  the 
men  who  publicly  and  formally  show  it,  is  stUl  of  great 
use  in  checking  or  averting  public  disturbances,  and  is 
also  of  some  material  harm,  in  disposing  us,  as  a  nation, 
to  submit  to  numerous  manifest  public  annoyances,  im- 
positions, and  frauds.  Most  useful  this  quality  is  in  a 
community  made  up  of  mutual  strangers  ;  and  one  finds 
it  best  developed  in  our  far  western  communities. 

These  two  qualities  then,  the  willingness  to  compro- 
mise matters  in  dispute,  and  the  desire  to  be  in  public 
on  pleasant  terms  with  everybody,  worked  in  new  camps 
wonders  for  good  order.  We  read,  on  good  authority, 
of  gold  left  in  plain  sight,  unguarded  and  unmolested, 
for  days  together ;  of  grave  disputes,  involving  vast 
wealth,  decided  by  calm  arbitration ;  of  weeks  and 
months  during  which  many  camps  lived  almost  free 
from  secret  theft,  and  quite  free  from  open  violence. 
We  find  pioneers  gloomily  lamenting  those  days,  when 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  ORDER.  281 

social  order  was  so  cheap,  so  secure,  and  so  profitable. 
And  all  these  things  give  us  a  high  idea  of  the  native 
race  instinct  that  could  thus  express  itself  impromptu 
even  for  a  brief  period. 

But  we  must  still  insist :  all  this  view  of  the  mining 
life  is  one-sided,  because  this  good  order,  widely  spread 
as  it  often  undoubtedly  was,  was  still  in  its  nature  unsta= 
ble,  since  it  had  not  been  won  as  a  prize  of  social  de- 
votion, but  only  attained  by  a  sudden  feat  of  instinctive 
cleverness.  The  social  order  is,  however,  something  that 
instinct  must  make  in  its  essential  elements,  by  a  sort 
of  first  intention,  but  that  only  voluntary  devotion  can 
secure  against  corruption.  Secured,  however,  against 
the  worst  corruption  the  mining  camp  life  was  not,  so 
long  as  it  rested  in  this  first  stage. 

For  this  is  what  we  see  when  we  turn  to  the  other, 
still  more  familiar,  picture.  Violence  leaves  a  deeper 
impression  than  peace ;  and  that  may  explain  very  read- 
ily why  some  boasting  pioneers,  and  many  professional 
story-teUers,  have  combined  to  describe  to  us  the  mining 
camp  as  a  place  where  blood  was  cheaper  than  gold, 
where  nearly  all  gambled,  where  most  men  had  shot 
somebody,  where  the  most  disorderly  lynching  was  the 
only  justice,  and  where,  in  short,  disorder  was  supreme. 
Such  scenes  were  of  course  never  as  a  fact  universal, 
and  nowhere  did  they  endure  long.  That  we  must  once 
for  all  bear  in  mind.  Yet  when  we  turn  away  from  the 
exaggerations  and  absurdities  of  the  mere  story-tellers 
and  the  boasters,  and  when  we  look  at  the  contempo-^ 
rary  records,  we  find,  never  indeed  so  bad  a  general 
state  of  things  throughout  the  mines  as  the  one  just  de- 
scribed, but  at  all  events  at  certain  times  a  great  deal 
of  serious  and  violent  disorder  in  many  camps.    To  what 


282  CALIFORNIA. 

was  all  this  due  ?  The  first  answer  is  suggested  by  a 
chronological  consideration.  The  camps  of  1848  began 
with  orderly  and  friendly  life,  but  in  some  cases  degen- 
erated before  the  season  was  done.  The  camps  of  1849 
are  described,  by  those  who  best  knew  them,  as  on  the 
whole  remarkably  orderly.  By  the  middle  of  1850  we 
meet  with  a  few  great  disturbances,  like  those  in  Sonora. 
By  the  beginning  of  1851  complaints  are  general  and 
quickly  lead  up  to  violence  ;  one  looks  back  to  1849  as 
to  the  golden  age  of  good  order,  and  one  even  laments 
the  coming  of  the  state  government,  which  has  brought 
the  semblance,  but  not  the  substance  of  law.  In  the 
older  camps,  1851  thus  marks  the  culmination  of  the 
first  phase  of  the  struggle  for  order,  while  newer  camps 
are  of  course  still  in  their  first  love.  This  paroxysm  of 
social  rebirth  passes,  and  a  more  stable  order  seems  for 
a  time  to  succeed,  in  many  parts  of  the  mines  ;  yet, 
according  to  the  age  and  the  population  of  individual 
camps,  similar  struggles  are  repeated,  all  through  the 
early  years.  This  simple  chronological  consideration, 
which  we  hardly  need  confirm  by  detailed  references 
just  here,  since  it  is  well  known,  and  will  sufficiently  ap- 
pear in  the  following,  shows  that  disorder  was  not  the 
initial  stage  of  the  mining  camps,  but  was  a  corrupt 
stage,  through  which  they  were  apt  to  pass.  The  nature 
and  the  causes  of  the  disorder  must  appear  from  what 
we  can  learn  of  the  details  in  the  newspapers  and  other 
records  of  the  time. 

in.    PAN     AND     CRADLE     AS    SOCIAL     AGENTS  :     MINING 
SOCIETY   IN   THE   SUMMER   OF   1848. 

To  understand  these  records,  however,  one  must  re- 
member the  general  facts  about  the  origin,  the  growth, 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  ORDER.  283 

and  the  aspects,  physical  and  social,  of  any  mining 
camp.  A  camp,  at  first  an  irregular  collection  of  tents 
about  some  spot  where  gold  had  been  discovered,  as- 
sumed form,  in  time,  by  the  laying  out  of  streets  ;  and  if 
its  life  continued,  for  its  tents  were  substituted,  first 
"cloth  houses,"  and  then  wooden  buildings,  among 
which,  a  little  later,  fire-proof  structures  would  begin  to 
appear.  While  some  camps  grew  upon  "  flats,"  the  sit- 
uations of  the  early  camps  were  generally  in  the  deep 
ravines,  close  under  the  vast  frowning  cliffs  that  rise 
on  each  side  of  the  narrow  canons  of  the  larger  Sierra 
rivers.-^  Those  in  the  lowest  foot-hills  were,  however, 
sometimes  surrounded  only  by  gentler  slopes,  or  by 
bluffs  of  moderate  height.  The  bars  of  the  larger  riv- 
ers, the  gravel  in  the  tributary  ravines,  and  a  few  gravel 
deposits  that  were  far  enough  from  water  to  be  called 
"  dry  diggings,"  were  at  first  the  chief  accessible  sources 
of  the  gold. 

Moral  growth  is  everywhere  impossible  without  favor- 
able physical  conditions.  It  has  seldom  been  noticed 
by  later  writers  that  the  social  condition  of  the  camps 
was,  in  the  successive  years  and  despite  all  good  inten- 
tions, largely  and  almost  irresistibly  determined  by  the 
various  successively  predominant  methods  of  mining. 
To  understand  this  fact  we  need  only  to  follow  some  of 
the  early  accounts  of  these  methods,  associated  as  many 
of  them  are  with  descriptions  of  the  local  habits  and 
customs  of  the  moment.     To  the  most  of  the  new-com- 

1  The  seventh  letter  of  "  Shirley,"  in  Ewer's  Pioneer,  vol.  ii.  p.  91, 
gives  vivid  impressions  of  the  scenery  and  situation  of  Indian  Bar, 
on  the  Feather.  The  letter  was  written  in  October.  "At  present," 
she  says,  "the  sun  does  not  condescend  to  shine  upon  Indian  Bar  at 
all."  So  it  was  all  through  the  winter.  No  one  who  has  had  a  glimpse 
of  the  Sierras  will  fail  to  remember  such  places  along  the  canons. 


284  CALIFORNIA. 

ers  all  mining  was  novel,  and  they  describe  the  myste- 
ries of  the  art  with  enthusiastic  detail.  Let  us  begin  in 
1848  with  Walter  Colton.^  "  I  went  among  the  gold- 
diggers,"  he  says,  "  found  half  a  dozen  at  the  bottom  of 
the  ravine,  tearing  up  the  bogs,  and  up  to  their  knees  in 
mud.  Beneath  these  bogs  lay  a  bed  of  clay,  sprinkled 
in  spots  with  gold.  These  deposits,  and  the  earth 
mixed  with  them,  were  shovelled  into  bowls,  taken  to  a 
pool  near  by,  and  washed  out.  The  bowl,  in  working, 
is  held  in  both  hands,  whirled  violently  back  and  forth 
through  half  a  circle,  and  pitched  this  way  and  that  suffi- 
ciently to  throw  off  the  earth  and  water,  while  the  gold 
settles  to  the  bottom.  The  process  is  extremely  labo- 
rious, and  taxes  the  entire  muscles  of  the  frame.  In  its 
effect  it  is  more  like  swinging  a  scythe  than  any  work  I 
ever  attempted."  This  "  pan  "  work  was  at  first  very 
general,  although  miners  did  not  usually  work  in  just 
such  places  as  this.  It  has  retained  its  place  in  the 
prospector's  life,  and  in  mining  in  new  placers,  ever 
since,  although  the  handling  of  the  pan  may  be  made 
less  laborious  than  it  was  to  Colton's  muscles.  A  little 
more  practice,  and  the  use  of  a  current  of  water,  such 
as  usually  could  be  found  at  hand,  or  reached  by  carry- 
ing the  earth  down  from  "  dry  diggings,"  helped  to 
make  the  pan-washing  itself  no  very  hard  toil  for  strong 
arms.  The  digging,  however,  no  practice  could  im- 
prove, or  render  anything  but  the  most  wearisome  of 
tasks.  In  washing  with  the  pan,  in  a  running  stream, 
one  began  each  washing  by  holding  the  pan,  half  full  of 
dirt,  a  little  under  the  current  of  water.  Shaking,  or 
even  sometimes  stirring  the  contents,  and  throwing  out 
with  the  hand  the  larger  stones,  one  gradually  raised  the 
1  Thren  Years  in  California,  p.  274. 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR   ORDER.  286 

pan  out  of  the  current,  as  the  earth  dissolved  away  and 
was  carried  off  in  the  stream.  At  last  the  motion  and 
the  flow  of  water  carried  off  the  whole  mass,  save  a  little 
black  sand  mingled  with  the  gold  particles.  After  dry- 
ing this,  one  could  get  rid  of  the  sand  by  blowing,  or, 
as  was  customary  in  later  times,  by  clearing  away  iron 
particles  with  a  magnet.^ 

At  best,  however,  pan-mining  was,  in  proportion  to 
the  amount  of  gravel  washed,  a  slow  and  tedious  pro- 
cess. Even  the  richest  diggings  were  thus  apt  to  prove 
disappointing,  and,  socially  regarded,  the  pan,  if  it  had 
remained  long  the  predominating  instrument  of  mining 
work,  would  have  precluded  any  rapid  or  secure  prog- 
ress in  the  organized  life  of  the  camps.  In  1848,  while 
the  larger  and  more  accessible  camps  rapidly  began  the 
use  of  "  machines,"  newer  camps  were  still  constantly 
being  formed  by  men  who  wished  to  seek  their  fortunes 
through  the  independent  use  of  their  pans.  And  the 
easily  learned  art  of  pan-mining  was  a  very  demoraliz- 
ing one,  so  long  as  a  great  proportion  of  the  miners 
could  still  hope  to  get  rich  by  it.  Colton,  whose  experi- 
ences lay  where  "  machines  "  were  less  used,  and  pans 
the  rule,  describes  to  us  men  mining  in  numbers  near  to- 
gether, sometimes  within  soimd  of  numberless  querulous 
"  prairie-wolves,"  ^  who  had  not  yet  been  thinned  out,  or 
driven  to  be  as  shy  as  the  surviving  ones  now  are  in  Cal- 
ifornia hills  ;  but  the  men  he  makes  as  wandering,  and 

1  For  an  account  of  the  very  simple  process  of  "  panning,"  see  Hit- 
tell's  Resources  of  California,  6th  ed.  p.  314.  For  the  use  of  th« 
pan  in  1848,  see  further  Foster's  Gold  Regions  of  CaUfornia,  p.  20 
(Larkin's  letter).  Also  see  Brooks,  Four  Months  among  the  Gold- 
Finders  (London  and  New  York,  1849),  pp.  36,  37,  41. 

2  Colton,  p.  279.  The  "prairie-wolf"  is  of  course  identical  with 
the  "  coyote." 


286  CALIFORNIA. 

often  as  discontented,  as  the  wolves  ;  independent  of  their 
fellow  laborers ;  quite  capable,  of  course,  of  ready  and 
unexactingly  simple  camp  organizations  ;  ^  but  not  led  to 
undertake  any  very  serious  social  duties.  Where  each 
man  toiled  with  his  pan,  he  hardly  needed  to  speak  to 
his  next  neighbor,  who  was  mainly  an  object  of  curiosity 
or  of  envy,  in  case  he  either  showed  symptoms  of  hav- 
ing made  some  discovery,  or  proved  his  greater  luck  by 
the  gold  he  could  display.  The  means  of  getting  sup- 
plies from  the  coast,  in  these  less  accessible  camps,  were 
subject  to  all  sorts  of  uncertainties  ;  and,  so  long  as  the 
pan  was  very  largely  used  among  implements  of  mining, 
affairs  must  remain  so.  For  pan-mining  left  it  doubt- 
ful where  one's  market  would  be,  almost  from  day  to 
day,  a  thing  that  no  dealer  could  safely  long  tolerate.* 
Hence  the  enormous  prices,  the  untrustworthy  markets, 
and  the  occasional  approaches  to  starvation  in  the  newer 
mines. 

1  See  also  Mr.  Shinn's  Mining  Camps,  chaps,  ix.  and  x. 

2  The  local  predominance  of  the  pan  over  the  cradle  is  shown  by  Col- 
ton  when  (p.  281)  after  describing  the  cradle,  he  adds:  "  Most  of  the 
diggers  use  a  bowl  or  pan ;  its  lightness  never  embarrasses  their  roving 
habits ;  and  it  can  be  put  in  motion  wherever  they  may  find  a  stream  or 
spring.  It  can  be  purchased  now  in  the  mines  for  five  or  six  dollars  ; 
a  few  months  since  it  cost  an  ounce."  This  evidence  of  course  holds 
only  for  the  camps  seen  by  Colton.  The  fall  in  price  may  have  been 
due  to  the  increasing  use  of  the  cradles;  but  it  must  be  remembered 
that  Indian  willow-baskets,  or  any  other  possible  and  easily  portable 
substitutes  for  bowls,  were  then  eagerly  accepted.  The  restlessness  of 
these  pan-miners  exceeded  the  well-known  uneasiness  of  the  later 
mining  communities,  just  because  there  was  lacking  for  them  every 
motive  to  permanency  in  anj^  camp  save  actual  and  continuous  great 
success,  while  the  rudeness  of  the  pan  as  an  instrument  made  great 
success  almost  always  transient.  See  instances  of  sudden  migrations 
and  restlessness,  and  remarks  upon  the  fact  in  Colton,  pp.  293,  30^ 
314.  "  As  for  mutual  aid  and  sympathy,"  he  says,  "  Samson's  foxes 
had  as  much  of  it,  turned  tall  to,  with  firebrands  tied  between." 
This  is  of  course  a  little  Coltonian. 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  ORDER.  287 

The  pan  as  sole  instrument  for  gold- washing  was, 
then,  sociologically  and  morally,  as  well  as  economically 
considered,  a  great  evil  for  the  mining  life  ;  and  one  can 
be  glad  that  its  time  of  more  extended  use  was  so  short. 
Already  in  1848  many  men,  and  some  whole  camps, 
were  desiring  and  using  "  machines,"  as  they  are  at  first 
rather  vaguely  called  in  the  accounts,  e.  g.^  as  Larkin 
calls  them  ;  ^  arid  Larkin  himself  had  one  of  them  made 
for  a  native  miner,  at  the  latter's  order,  in  Monterey : 
"  a  log  dug  out,  with  a  riddle  and  sieve  made  of  willow 
boughs  on  it,"  costing,  he  tells  us,  one  hundred  and 
twenty  dollars,  "  payable  in  gold  dust  at  fourteen  dol- 
lars an  ounce."  Mason,  according  to  his  report  of  Au- 
gust 17,^  had  found  on  July  5  the  greater  part  of  the 
miners  at  the  Mormon  or  lower  diggings  already  using 
the  cradle:  "a  rude  machine,"  "on  rockers,  six  or 
eight  feet  long,  open  at  the  foot,  and,  at  its  head,  a 
coarse  grate  or  sieve  ;  the  bottom  is  rounded,  with  small 
r  cleats  nailed  across.  Four  men  are  required  to  work 
f  this  machine  :  one  digs  the  ground  in  the  bank  close  by 
the  stream  ;  another  carries  it  to  the  cradle,  and  emp- 
ties it  on  the  grate  ;  a  third  gives  a  violent  rocking  mo- 
tion to  the  machine ;  while  a  fourth  dashes  on  water 
from  the  stream  itself."  —  "  The  sieve  keeps  the  coarse 
stones  from  entering  the  cradle,  the  current  of  water 
washes  off  the  earthy  matter,  and  the  gravel  is  gradu- 
ally carried  out  at  the  foot  of  the  machine,  leaving  the 
gold  mixed  with  a  heavy  fine  black  sand  above  the  first 
cleats.  The  sand  and  gold  mixed  together  are  then 
drawn  off  through  auger  holes  into  a  pan  below,  are 

ii  See  his  letter  above  cited,  p.  19  of  Foster's  Gold  Regions  of  Cali- 
fornia. 
2  I  quote  here  again  from  Foster,  p.  10. 


288  CALIFORNIA, 

dried  in  the  sun,  and  afterwards  separated  by  blowing 
off  the  sand."  Essential  to  the  success  of  the  cradle 
was  of  course  its  inclined  position.  In  the  form  de- 
scribed, it  has  remained  in  occasional  use  without  change 
of  principle  ever  since,  although  it  is  less  rudely  made ; 
but  in  large,  permanent,  and  steadily  productive  diggings 
it  is  not  useful.  Its  position  soon  became  a  very  subor- 
dinate one,  and  later  it  became  a  rare  sight. 

For  the  time,  however,  the  cradle  was  a  step  in  ad- 
vance, physically  and  morally.  Gravels  that  the  pan- 
miner  contemptuously  abandoned  were  well  worth  work- 
ing on  this  plan.  Camps  that  would  have  been  deserted 
remained,  and  were  prosperous.  The  great  thing, 
however,  from  the  sociological  point  of  view,  was  that 
men  now  had  voluntarily,  and  in  an  organized  way,  to 
work  together.  The  miner's  partnership,  which  grew  up 
in  this  second  stage  of  mining  life,  soon  became  one 
of  the  closest  of  California  relationships,  and,  as  such, 
has  been  widely  and  not  unjustly  celebrated  in  song 
and  story.  This  accidentally  primitive  society  had 
passed  from  a  state  of  "  nature,"  in  the  old  sense  of  the 
word  (this  state  of  "  nature  "  being  indeed  here  a  state 
of  unstable  peace,  not  of  general  war),  and  had  be- 
come a  collection  of  mutually  more  or  less  independent, 
but  inwardly  united  Bands.  Rapidly  as  the  successive 
stages  of  this  growth  passed  by,  they  still  left  their 
mark  on  the  social  order,  as  we  shall  soon  see. 

The  summary  of  the  situation  in  the  small  community 
of  the  early  golden  days  is,  then,  that  the  first  estab- 
lished and  more  crowded  camps  quickly  passed  into  the 
second  stage  of  mining  life,  substituting  for  the  pan  the 
cradle,  while  numerous  dissatisfied  gold-seekers  were 
constantly  hunting  for  new  diggings,  and  founding  new 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR   ORDER.  289 

camps,  using  meanwhile  for  the  most  part  the  pan. 
The  resulting  total  of  social  condition  is  hard  to  de- 
scribe, for  lack  of  good  evidence.  Mr.  Shinn's  account 
above  cited,  although  weU  told,  and  founded  in  large 
measure  on  a  fair  sort  of  pioneer  evidence,  is  still  one- 
sided, and  is  too  optimistic.  I  have  more  confidence  in 
a  direct  use,  as  far  as  it  goes,  of  the  very  frank  and  unas- 
suming contemjDorary  story  of  Dr.  Brooks,  also  already 
cited.  J.  Tyrwhitt  Brooks,  an  English  physician,  just 
then  from  Oregon,  visited  the  gold  region  in  the  midst 
of  the  first  excitement,  in  an  improvised  company  from 
the  coast-region,  consisting  at  first  of  six  white  men  and 
one  Indian,  and  later  considerably  larger.  The  party,  in 
the  various  stages  of  its  life,  contained  both  Englishmen 
and  Americans,  and  included  one  Californian  gentleman 
of  some  position.  These  partners  were  nearly  all  mutu- 
ally quite  new  acquaintances  ;  one  was  supposed  to  be  a 
deserting  sailor ;  none  knew  anything  at  the  start  about 
mining.  For  some  time  they  had  good  luck ;  in  the  end 
they  lost  nearly  all  their  gains ;  their  fortunes  were  on 
the  whole  characteristic.  The  account  of  Dr.  Brooks, 
as  published,  contains  numerous  misprinted  dates,  since 
the  volume,  which  comprises  the  Doctor's  diary  of  the 
expedition,  with  some  remarks,  was  sent  home  as  a 
bundle  of  MS.  for  the  private  use  of  his  friends,  and 
was  thereupon  printed  without  the  author's  supervision. 
Allowing  for  the  plain  misprints,  the  chronology  of  the 
account  nevertheless  agrees  well  enough  with  that  of 
events  otherwise  known  from  the  Mason  and  Larkin 
letters  ;  and  Brooks  seems  to  be  a  perfeecly  trustworthy 
observer. 

At  the  Mormon  diggings.  Brooks  "  stirred  "  his  first 
**  pailful "  of  earth.     He  found  (loc,  cit.,  p.  36)  many 
19 


290  CALIFORNIA. 

of  the  diggers  there  washing  with  "pots,"  others,  as 
would  seem,  even  washing  directly  from  their  spades, 
using  these  as  very  rough  pans.  Many,  however,  used 
cradles,  and  Brooks  and  his  companions,  quickly  weary- 
ing of  pan-work,  made  their  own  cradles  out  of  rough 
boards  in  a  day  or  two,  and  worked  together.  The 
habit  of  employing  companies  of  Indians  to  do  the 
mining  for  some  one  white  adventurer  was  common 
enough ;  but  the  mass  of  the  miners  worked  either 
singly,  or  in  the  small  cradle-parties.  The  miners  of 
the  Mormon  diggings  were  all  conscious,  even  at  this 
time,  of  a  controlling  customary  law,  quickly  formed,  as 
it  seemed  to  them,  but  at  all  events  derived  from  no  one 
discoverable  present  source.  Thus  (p.  46)  it  was  gen- 
erally understood  that  a  lump  of  gold  more  than  half 
an  ounce  in  weight,  if  picked  up  from  the  freshly  dug 
earth  by  a  member  of  a  party  mining  in  partnership, 
"  before  the  earth  was  thrown  into  the  cradle,"  be- 
longed to  the  finder  personally,  and  not  to  the  party. 
As  for  society,  that  at  the  Mormon  diggings  was  quickly 
under  the  sway  of  a  few  native  Californian  families,  of 
respectable  and  sociable  character,  who  appeared  under 
the  protection  of  their  heads,  well-to-do  native  citizens, 
who  had  chosen  to  seek  gold  in  good  company.  The 
wives  of  these  men  were  waited  on  by  Indian  servants  ; 
they  gave  their  usual  Californian  attention  to  bright 
dress  and  good-fellowship,  and  held  very  delightful 
dancing  parties  in  the  evenings  "  on  the  green,  before 
some  of  the  tents  "  (p.  47).  The  friendly  and  well- 
disposed  camp  joined  largely  in  these  parties,  and  found 
it  very  naturally  "  quite  a  treat  after  a  hard  day's  work, 
to  go  at  nightfall  to  one  of  these  fandangoes."  Brooks 
gives  us  no  impression  that  he  ever  found  these  enter- 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  ORDER.  291 

tainments  at  that  place  and  time  in  any  wise  of  suspi- 
cious character,  although  he  thinks  that  the  gentlemen 
sometimes  drank  a  little  more  than  was  proper,  so  that 
the  merriment  was  occasionally  "  animated  and  impos- 
ing" (p.  48).  Of  the  ladies,  the  wives  and  daughters 
of  the  Californians,  he  had  nothing  but  good  to  say. 

With  regret  Brooks  and  his  fellows  bade  farewell  to 
these  fair  entertainers  of  society  at  the  Mormon  dig- 
gings, and  on  the  first  of  July  left  the  now  over- 
crowded place  for  the  North  Fork,  having  first  sold 
their  two  cradles  at  auction  for  three  hundred  and  sev- 
enty-five dollars  in  gold  dust  at  fourteen  dollars  to  the 
ounce.  At  the  site  of  Coloma,  they  found  Marshall 
mining  with  a  company  of  Indians,  and  they  spent  a 
day  or  two  near  this  place  themselves,  working  in  dry 
diggings,  and  carrying  the  earth  down  to  the  stream  to 
wash.  Thence  they  went  on,  to  Weber's  Creek,  passing 
on  the  way  Sinclair,  at  work  with  his  Indians.  Reach- 
ing a  new  camp  here,  whose  members  were  scattered 
over  the  stream-bed  and  up  the  neighboring  ravines, 
they  made  for  themselves  new  cradles  by  hollowing  out 
logs,  and  began  to  employ  Indians  to  help  them  (p.  57). 
Here  they  were  when  Colonel  Mason  visited  the  mines. 
But  these  diggings  also  were  quickly  overcrowded  by 
wandering  miners,  of  whom  "  about  half  work  together 
in  companies  —  the  other  half  shift  each  for  himself  " 
(p.  59).  The  lonely  men  were  evidently  pan-miners. 
The  Indians  also  crowded  the  place  in  hundreds,  worked 
for  bright  clothing  and  whiskey,  and  staggered  about 
drunk.  The  miners  of  Brooks's  party  grew  discon- 
tented. There  was  doubtless  plenty  of  gold  on  Bear 
River ;  a  trapper  told  about  the  region,  and  consented 
to  guide  the  party  thither  for  "  sixty-five  dollars  and 


292  CALIFORNIA. 

his  food."  The  Brooks  party  had  much  trouble  in  get- 
ting provisions  enough  for  their  journey,  as  everything 
was  "inordinately  dear,"  so  that  they  had  to  content 
themselves  with  bacon,  dried  beef,  and  coffee  (p.  61). 
They  at  this  time  received  and  accepted  offers  from 
three  or  four  strangers  to  join  their  company,  which 
was  thus  strengthened  against  Indians.  Hard  toil, 
under  good  guidance,  but  through  a  very  rough  country, 
brought  them  over  the  hills  to  Bear  River  Valley,  where, 
after  finding  rich  gravels,  they  began  once  more  to  make 
cradles,  and  to  build  a  large,  ro  uglily  fortified  shanty, 
for  protection  against  the  Indians.  They  made  a 
stricter  division  of  labor  than  before,  and  toiled  fruit- 
fully for  some  time.  The  life  was  at  best  a  hard  one, 
and  Brooks  found  himself  very  lonesome,  and  home- 
sick. At  night,  around  the  camp-fire,  the  trapper-guide 
told  great  tales  of  the  deserts  beyond  the  Sierras,  and 
of  the  horrible  dangers  of  the  unknown  expanse  of  the 
Great  Salt  Lake,  on  to  whose  "  dark  turbid  waters,"  as 
he  declared,  "  no  living  being  has  yet  been  found  dar- 
ing enough  to  venture  far,"  owing  to  a  mysterious  whirl- 
pool there  said  to  exist.  The  country  about  them  was 
rugged,  and  still  little  visited ;  and  was  as  romantic 
and  bewildering  to  them  as  were  the  trapper's  nightly 
yams.     Their  diggings,  however,  proved  very  rich. 

At  this  point  trouble  began.  First  some  "  horse- 
thief  "  Indians  appeared,  and  succeeded  in  galloping  off 
with  several  of  their  horses.  In  a  brush  with  these  In- 
dians one  of  the  Brooks  party  was  killed.  Next,  as  the 
time  grew  near  when  the  season  would  force  them  to 
forsake  the  lonely  golde©  valley,  sickness  appeared  in 
the  camp,  provisions  ran  low,  and  the  mass  of  gold-dust 
now  accumulated  in  their  cabin  began  to  seem  to  them, 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  ORDER.  293 

after  the  Indian  fight,  a  perilous  wealth.  For  Indians 
too  by  this  time  desired  gold  to  exchange  for  fire-water. 
While  the  trapper,  with  one  man,  accordingly  set  out 
for  Sutter's  Fort,  to  get  provisions,  three  of  the  party, 
including  the  Californian  gentleman,  were  deputed  to 
carry  the  gold-dust  to  San  Francisco,  while  the  others 
were  to  toil  out  the  season,  and  divide  gains  with  those 
sent  away.  Success,  however,  had  already  engendered 
jealousy  and  suspicion.  The  party  were  very  near  an 
open  quarrel  (p.  78)  over  the  choice  of  the  men  to  be 
intrusted  with  the  gold,  and  one  of  the  three  actually 
sent,  a  friend  of  Brooks,  who  had  accompanied  him 
from  Oregon,  was  intended  by  Brooks  and  some  others 
to  watch  his  fellow-messengers. 

On  the  way  with  the  gold,  the  three  messengers  were 
suddenly  attacked  by  mounted  robbers,  who  lassoed  and 
badly  injured  this  third  man,  and  escaped  with  his  horse 
and  saddle-bags,  the  latter  containing  the  bulk  of  the  gold 
itself.  The  unjust  suspicions  of  which  Brooks  frankly 
makes  confession,  by  causing  this  man  to  be  the  carrier 
of  most  of  the  treasure,  had  resulted  in  the  loss  of  nearly 
the  whole  outcome  of  the  long  toil.  The  robbers  were 
native  Calif ornians  and  Indians ;  and  one  of  them,  who 
who  was  killed  in  the  fight,  was,  Brooks  declares,  on  the 
report  given  by  miners  who  recognized  him,  "  one  of 
the  disbanded  soldiers  of  the  late  Californian  army,  by 
name  Tomas  Maria  Carrillo  ;  a  man  of  the  very  worst 
character,  who  had  connected  himself  with  a  small  band 
of  depredators,  whose  occupation  was  to  lay  [sic\  in 
wait  at  convenient  spots  along  the  roads  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  seacoast,  and  from  thence  to  pounce 
upon  and  plunder  any  unfortunate  merchant  or  ranchero 
that  might  be  passing  unprotected  that  way.     The  gang 


294  CALIFORNIA. 

had  now  evidently  abandoned  the  coast  to  try  their  for- 
tunes in  the  neighborhood  of  the  mines  ;  and,  judging 
from  the  accounts  which  one  of  the  miners  gave  of  the 
number  of  robberies  that  had  recently  taken  place  there- 
abouts, their  mission  had  been  eminently  successful" 
(p.  82).' 

This  characteristic  event,  the  outcome  of  the  scattered 
condition  of  society  at  the  moment,  and  of  the  demoral- 
izing old  days  of  the  conquest,  led  Brooks  to  learn  of 
several  equally  characteristic  occurrences  of  other  sorts 
in  neighboring  mines.  The  companions  of  the  wounded 
man  were  possibly  aided  in  repulsing  the  robbers  by  the 
approach  of  a  band  of  mounted  miners,  who  opportunely 
appeared  just  after  the  assailants  had  fled.  The  new- 
comers, however,  declined  to  take  any  trouble  to  help 
the  wounded  man,  but,  as  the  messengers  related  to 
Brooks,  "  coolly  turned  their  horses'  heads  round,  and 
left  us  alone  with  our  dying  friend,  not  deigning  further 
to  notice  our  appeals."  Every  man  looked  out  for  him- 
self in  those  days,  as  one  sees ;  and  when  the  two  mes- 
sengers, after  at  last  getting,  by  their  begging  a  little, 
help,  managed  to  bring  their  friend  —  not  dying,  in- 
deed, but  badly  hurt  —  to  a  near  camp,  they  could  only 
return  alone  and  disheartened  to  the  old  spot  on  the 
Bear  River,  and  tell  their  strange  tale  to  the  rest.  The 
whole  party  thereupon  spent  a  night  about  the  camp-fire 
in  sullen  silence,  broken  only  by  occasional  bitter  or  sus- 
picious speeches,  until  the  dawn  found  them  weary, 
haggard,  and  disgusted.  What  gold  was  left  they  quar- 
reled over  during  the  morning,  and  having  at  last 
weighed  it  out  in  parcels,  they  separated  finally  into  two 

1  Of  this  Toraas  M.  Carrillo,  Mr.  H.  H.  Bancroft's  list  of  pioneen 
knows  only  this  one  fact,  as  told  by  Brooks. 


THE  STRUGGLE   FOR   ORDER.  295 

parties,  of  which  one,  with  Brooks,  set  off  to  the  camp 
where  the  wounded  man  had  been  left.  On  the  way 
they  met  the  trapper,  who,  with  his  one  companion,  had 
previously  gone  to  Sutter's  Fort  for  supplies.  These 
two  also  had  had  their  adventures,  which  they  now  pro- 
ceeded to  tell.  The  trapper  and  his  comrade  found 
flour  as  much  as  eighty-five  dollars  a  barrel  at  Sutter's 
Fort.  On  the  way  back,  their  pack-horses  were  stolen, 
one  night,  with  their  packs  of  provisions.  When  they 
appealed  to  the  miners  of  a  neighboring  camp  for  help 
in  finding  the  thieves,  they  were  only  treated  with  rude- 
ness and  suspicion,  and  one  of  the  miners  drove  them 
off  with  his  rifle  (p.  86).  He  later  proved  to  be  what 
his  friends  called  a  peaceably-disposed  man,  whose 
brusqueness  of  manner  was  the  result  of  the  large  quan- 
tity of  gold-dust  that  fortune  had  given  him,  and  of 
the  fact  that  he  consequently  demanded  proper  intro- 
duction of  people  who  came  to  call  on  him.  To  be  sure, 
his  desire  to  be  alone  had  already  led  him  to  feel  it  his 
duty  to  shoot  and  kill  two  men,  so  that  some  of  his 
neighbors  called  him  a  "  terror  "  ;  but,  as  appears  from 
p.  89,  others  justified  him,  on  the  ground  that  he  had 
shot  only  people  who  needed  shooting.  Such  an  asser- 
tion, under  such  circumstances,  admitted  of  no  proper 
verification  ;  but,  at  aU  events,  his  manners  lacked  deli- 
cacy, and  the  two  Brooks  party  men  felt  aggrieved  at 
the  imperfect  public  spirit  in  this  whole  camp,  near 
which  their  pack-horses  had  so  mysteriously  disappeared. 
The  two  had  yet  other  sad  things  to  tell  Brooks  of  the 
state  of  society  at  this  little  camp  ;  for  some  men  there 
had  their  arms  in  slings,  and  others  said  that  such  inju- 
ries were  common  in  those  diggings  after  people  had 
chanced  to  differ  in  opinion. 


296  CALIFORNIA. 

Brooks  and  his  party  from  Bear  River  exchanged 
their  own  little  tale  of  disaster  with  the  one  thus  con- 
fided to  them  hy  the  trapper  and  his  comrade,  and  then 
went  on  to  hunt  for  the  wounded  friend.  Him  they 
found  slowly  recovering  from  his  injuries  and  lying  in 
a  shanty.  But  the  camp  where  he  was  staying  was 
sickly.  "Fever  was  prevalent,  and  I  found,"  says 
Brooks,  "  that  more  than  two  thirds  of  the  people  at 
this  settlement  were  unable  to  move  out  of  their  tents. 
The  other  third  were  too  selfish  to  render  them  any 
assistance"  (p.  87).  It  was  even  hard  to  find  a  burial- 
place  when  one  was  dead ;  for  these  miners  "  denied 
the  poor  corpses  of  their  former  friends  a  few  feet  of 
earth  for  a  grave,  and  left  the  bodies  exposed  for  the 
wolf  to  prey  upon."  The  season,  in  fact,  was  nearly 
done,  and  men  were  now  frantic  for  the  gold. 

All  this  was  surely  an  unpleasant  state  of  affairs; 
though  1848  is  the  season  that  Mr.  Henry  Degroot,  as 
quoted  by  Mr.  Shinn,^  seems  to  look  back  ^jpon  as  con- 
taining "  all  that  was  staid  and  primitive  in  or  about 
the  mines  of  California."  But  we  have  already  seen, 
in  Dr.  Brooks's  account  of  the  happy  fandangoes  "  on 
the  green  "  at  the  Mormon  diggings,  how  capable  he 
was  of  picturing  the  pleasant  side  of  this  seemingly  so 
irresponsible  and  accidental  life,  and  how  different  the 
view  of  a  man  in  another  camp  at  the  same  time  might 
have  been.  One  also  sees,  however,  the  impossibility 
of  doubting  that,  in  these  pan-mining  days,  with  only 
about  half  of  a  camp  using  the  rocker,  and  with  no 
miners  connected  in  any  form  of  close  personal  organi- 

1  Mining  Camps,  p.  122.  It  is  proper  to  add  that  Mr.  Degroot,  as 
appears  by  his  article  in  the  Overland  Monthly  for  April,  1874,  ar. 
rived  io  1849,  and  knew  of  1848  only  by  hearsay. 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR   ORDER.  297 

zation,  save  such  as  the  rocker-parties  implied,  irrespon- 
sibility meant  almost  universal  selfishness  beyond  the 
limits  of  one's  own  party,  and  selfishness,  in  the  long 
run,  meant  disorder  and  occasional  violence,  with  a  very 
bad  social  outlook  ahead,  despite  the  readiness  where- 
with rough  camp  organizations  could  always  be  made 
for  the  momentary  repression  of  more  intolerable  crime 
or  for  the  settlement  of  greater  disputes. 

At  all  events,  in  these  last  days  of  the  season  of  1848 
Brooks  found  everybody  talking  of  disorder  and  inse- 
curity. His  friend  was,  indeed,  safe  enough,  and  was 
well  cared  for  by  a  "  kind  Californian  nurse  and  her 
husband,"  whose  "  kind  treatment  of  my  poor  friend 
offered  a  striking  contrast  to  the  callous  selfishness 
around."  But,  when  Brooks  himself  set  out  towards 
Sutter's  Fort,  he  heard  reports  of  trouble  all  about  him. 
Nobody  left  his  gold  in  his  tent ;  everybody  carried  it 
on  his  own  person;  and  the  number  of  missing  men 
"  whose  own  friends  had  not  thought  it  worth  while  to 
go  in  search  of  them  "  was  considerable.  One  or  two 
dead  bodies  were  found  floating  in  the  river,  "  which 
circumstance  was  looked  upon  as  indicative  of  foul 
play  ;  "  as  a  gold-digger  who  was  drowned  by  accident 
ought,  people  said,  to  have  enough  gold  about  him  to 
keep  his  body  under  water.  The  characteristic  fact 
that  nobody  was  known  by  Brooks  to  have  taken  any 
trouble  to  look  closely  at  these  dead  bodies,  to  verify  or 
disprove,  by  examining  for  direct  signs  of  foul  play,  this 
a  priori  reasoning,  is  only  indirectly  indicated  by  our 
author.  "  Open  attempts  at  robbery,"  he  adds,  "  were 
rare;  it  was  in  the  stealthy  night-time  that  thieves 
prowled  about,  and,  entermg  the  little  tents,  occupied 
\)y  not  more  than  perhaps  a  couple  of  miners,  neither  of 


298  CALIFORNIA, 

whom,  in  all  probability,  felt  inclined  to  keep  a  weary 
watch,"  stole  what  could  be  found.  Going  further  on 
his  way.  Brooks  came  to  the  ill-humored  camp  near 
which  the  trapper  had  lost  the  provisions.  Here  he  saw 
a  group  of  miners  drinking  brandy  "  at  a  dollar  a  dram." 
As  the  greater  part  of  them  were  "  suffering  from  fe- 
ver," the  doctor  himself  seriously  disapproved  of  their 
course,  on  professional  as  well  as  on  economic  grounds. 
Nevertheless,  he  found  time  to  learn  a  few  facts  in  favor 
of  the  much  maligned  inhabitants.  They  were  selfish 
and  dissipated,  but  they  meant  well  in  their  way. 

Weary  of  such  things,  he  reached  Sacramento,  and 
then  went  on  to  Monterey,  where  he  joined  in  a  fruit- 
less pursuit  into  the  Tulare  region  of  a  robber-band, 
who  were  reported  to  be  identical  with  the  assailants  of 
the  gold-bearing  messengers.  The  result  of  the  pursuit 
was  only  more  weariness,  and  a  sight  of  prairie,  thicket, 
and  hill.  In  sullen  silence  the  pursuers  at  last  rode 
back  to  Monterey,  sick  at  heart.  As  for  those  who 
still  remained  together  of  the  original  party,  there  was 
nothing  to  do  but  to  part.  The  resolution  to  do  so 
"  was  not  come  to  without  something  like  a  pang  —  a 
pang  which  I  sincerely  felt,  and  which  I  believe  was 
more  or  less  experienced  by  us  all.  We  had  lived  for 
four  months  in  constant  companionship,  and  a  friend- 
ship, more  vivid  than  can  well  be  imagined  in  civilized 
lands  to  have  been  the  growth  of  so  short  a  period,  had 
sprung  up  betwixt  us.  There  had  been  a  few  petty 
bickerings  between  us,  and  some  unjust  suspicions  on 
my  part ;  but  these  were  all  forgotten."  The  remaining 
gold  was  divided,  and  "  the  same  night  we  had  a  sup- 
per, at  which  a  melancholy  joviality  was  in  the  ascend- 
ant, and  the  next  day  shook  hands  and  parted."     ^'  Oi) 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  ORDER.  299 

waking  the  next  morning,"  says  Brooks,  "  I  found  that 
I  was  alone." 

In  this  account  there  is  one  thing  to  be  noted  ;  namely, 
that  Brooks  is  uncommonly  objective  in  his  fashions  of 
speech.     He  has   no  discoverable  aim   save    to   tell  a 
plain  story,  and  often  tells  things  to  his  own  disadvan- 
tage.    Hence  one  may  have  a  reasonable  confidence  in 
his    accuracy.     His    own   summary  is  especially  note- 
worthy, as  given  in  his  introductory  letter  to  a  relative, 
written  after  the  diary.     Of  the  country  itself  he  speaks 
well :  "I  assure  you  it  is  hardly  possible  for  any  ac- 
counts of  the  gold-mines  to  be  exaggerated.     The    EI 
Dorado  has  really  been  discovered "  (p.   13).     But  of 
the  social  condition  he  has  only  a  gloomy  account  to 
give  :  "  I  have  worked  hard  and  undergone  some  hard- 
ships ;  and,  thanks  to  the  now  almost  lawless  state  of 
the  country,  I  have  been  deprived  of  the  mass  of  my 
savings,  and  must,  when  the  dry  season  comes  round 
again,  set  to  work  almost  new.  .  .  .  My  own  case   is 
that  of  many  others.     As  the  number  of  diggers  and 
miners  augmented,  robberies  and  violence  became  fre- 
quent    At  first,  when  we  arrived  at  the  Mormon  dig- 
gings, for  example,    everything   was   tranquil.     Every 
man  worked  for  himself,  without  disturbing  his  neigh- 
bor.    Now  the  scene  is  widely  changed  indeed."     Al- 
lowing for  a  little  momentary  depression,  we  may  still 
regard  the  account   given   by   Brooks,    and   confirmed 
by  the  details  of  his  story,  as  a  fair  one,  on  the  whole, 
so  far  as  his  own  experience  could  guide  him,  and  his 
experience  is  plainly  no  insignificant  one. 

How  shall  we  reconcile  this  tale  of  transient  peace- 
fulness,  followed  by  weary  selfishness,  bickering,  and 
violence,  with  the  much  brighter  picture  of  1848,  given 


800  CALIFORNIA. 

on  the  basis  of  his  own  pioneer  evidence,  by  Mr.  Shinn  ? 
The  method  of  reconciliation  seems  to  me  clear  enough. 
The  quickly  organized  and,  at  the  first,  peaceful  camp 
of  1848  was  an  easily  cultivated  and  soon  withering 
flower,  which  could  not  well  live  to  the  end  of  the  Cali- 
fornia dry  season.  There  was  no  unity  of  interest  to 
preserve  its  simple  forms  from  degeneracy.  The  camp 
consisted  of  a  perfectly  transient  group  of  utterly  rest- 
less and  disconnected  men,  who  had  not  the  slightest 
notion  of  staying  where  they  were  more  than  a  few 
weeks.  When  a  country-side  was  full  of  such  groups, 
disorder,  before  many  months  should  pass,  was  simply 
inevitable.  Skill  in  improvising  organizations  could  not 
avert  the  result.  Moreover,  the  life  in  small  partner- 
ships involved,  despite  the  idyllic  character  of  the  re- 
lations of  "  pards,"  almost  every  possible  temptation 
that  could  act  to  make  ^  good-humored  man  quarrel- 
some. Rough  camp-life,  among  novices,  is  almost  al- 
ways as  full  of  bickering  as  of  good-fellowship.  Good- 
humor  in  public  meetings,  or  in  the  camp  at  large,  with 
private  petty  quarrels  going  on  meanwhile  —  this  was 
the  common  condition.  The  affray  in  the  Donner  party 
has  already,  in  an  earlier  chapter,  suggested  this  really 
very  trite  reflection  to  us,  and  we  need  not  dwell  on  it 
here.  The  practiced  camper  recovers  his  even  temper, 
but  the  novice  is  long  subject  to  bearishness.  The  mat- 
ter is  largely  physical.  The  civilized  man  becomes 
soon  peevish,  with  the  irregular  meals  and  the  monotony 
of  camp-life,  and  may  show,  even  to  his  best  friend,  an 
hitherto  unsuspected  brutality  of  mood  and  behavior. 

What  public  spirit  there  was  in  1848  showed  itself 
best,  as  Mr.  Shinn  has  pointed  out,  in  the  regulation  of 
the  miner's  temporary  land-tenure  and  in  the  settlement 


I 


putes  about  mining  rights.     But  the  life,  on  the 
(,  was  seriously  demoralizing  to  all  concerned  in  it, 
wust  remain  so  until   more  elaborate  methods  of 
an  should  be  introduced, 
m, 

MINING   SOCIETY   IN"   1849    AND   1850,    AND   THE 
BEGINNING    OF   SLUICE-MINING. 

small  partnership  and  cradle  system  of  mining 
■^0,  as  we  know,  the  common  system  of  1849,  and 
wasarly  part  of  1850.     In  a  noted,  but  now,  at  least 
of  therein  cited  first  edition,  quite  rare  pamphlet,^ 
in  t^s  the  experience  of  1848  and  of  the  early  sum- 
one  1849,  summed  up  in  a  way  that  is  very  instruct- 
me:'  our  present  purpose.    On  page  34,  the  new-comer 
ivees  advice  as  to  his  needs.     First  of  all  he  is  told 
^^.^rry  little  baggage  ;  as  "  it  wiU  always  impede  his  free 
ovement,  if  he  should  want  to  go  from  place  to  place, 
i  should  have  absolutely  nothing  more  than  what  he 
I.  carry  on  a  beast,  if  he  be  able  to  have  one  ;  or,  if 
cawhat  he  can  shoulder  himself.     The  less  one  brings 
nche  mines,  the  better   prospect   of   success  he   may 
tve."    A  change  of  clothing,  a  pair  of  blankets,  a  pick- 
le, a  spade  (a  winding-sheet  is  not  mentioned),  a  crow- 
bar, a  pan,  a  sheath-knife,  a  trowel  ;  such  is  the  outfit 
.or  the  single  miner.     "  A  washing-machine,"  however, 
"  is  used  when  there  are  two  or  more  working  in  part- 
nership."   This  machine  is  then  described  in  its  simpler 
form  very  much  as  above,  and  one  recently  imported 
improvement,  the  "  Burke  Rocker,"  a  sort  of  transition 
to   the    later  "  Long  Tom,"  is  praised.     All  other  de- 

1  California  as  it  is,  and  as  it  may  be,  or  a  Guide  to  the  Gold  Region, 
By  F.  P.  Wierzbicki,  M.  D.  First  ed.  San  Francisco  :  Printed  by 
Washington  Bartlett,  1849,  pp.  60.  The  preface  is  dated  September 
30,  1849.     The  book  is  the  first  English  volume  printed  in  California. 


302  CALIFORNIA.  \ 

vices  so  far  known  to  Wierzbicki  are  condemned,  es 
ially,  of  course,  those  numberless  and  useless  was? 
that  new-comers  brought,  and  so   promptly  left  in  ^^^ 
rubbish  heaps  of  San  Francisco.     The  result  as  to '  ® 
value  and  limits  of  mining  partnerships  is  very  sii    ^' 
and  practically  stated  (page  36)  :  "  However,  accoff  ^ 
to  circumstances,  these  partnerships  are  formed,  ir"^ 
only  be  said  that  there  is  no  occasion  for  more  than  ^^^ 
persons  in  a  company,  and  frequently  three  or  tv  ^"^ 
better  than  four.     For  protection  and  occasional  s(^ ,  ^ 
that  one  may  require  from  another,  it  is  always  ^^*^® 
to  be  in  partnership  with  a  suitable  person  or  per^    ^^^ 
On  page  45  and   page  46,  Wierzbicki  mentions  r"^* 
while  in  a  casual  way,  and  as   an  understood  fact^^'^' 
general  good  order  and  peace  of  the  mines.     Bu    ® 
shows  us  also  on  what  changing  stuff  this  good  OiiOr' 
depended.     The   "  silent  consent   of   all "  generally^ 
enough  to  insure   a  miner  his  rights  to  his  "  claim  ^^^ 
lynch  law  has  been  sometimes  needed  and  used  for  n    ' 
derers  and  robbers ;  but  improvised  judges  and  ju:"^^' 
have  seen  the  thing  carefully  done.     The  miners  eas^^ 
settle  their  own  disputes  about  the  use  of  land ;  thc^ 
justice  is  prompt  and  efficacious.     The  population,  hov. 
ever,  "  is  constantly  fluctuating ; "  and  so  any  perma 
nent  jurisdictions  seem  to  the  writer  incapable  of  estab- 
lishment at  present.     One  sees  the  outcome  of  all  this. 
The  miners  rove  about  in  what   seems    on   the  wliole 
peace  ;    there  is  no   seriously  exacting  government   in 
Israel ;  every  man  does  what  is  right  in  his  own  eyes, 
subject  to  a  simple  and  easily  improvised  popular  justice. 
Large  partnerships  and  extended  social  alliances  are, 
however,  entangling  and  useless.     Responsibilities  must 
he  avoided  by  one  who  wants  success. 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  ORDER.  303 

The  Immediate  result  of  this  system,  as  applied  in 
1849,  was,  however,  on  the  whole,  remarkably  free 
from  serious  public  mishap.  Many  causes  combined  to 
postpone  this  year  the  evil  results.  The  great  numbers 
and  high  character  of  the  new-comers  are  in  part  re- 
sponsible for  this.  The  great  numbers  led  to  vast  ex- 
tensions of  the  field  of  work,  and  rendered  the  risks  of 
intercommunication  among  the  various  camps  less  no- 
ticeable than  in  the  previous  year.  By  virtue  of  sheer 
mass,  the  community  meanwhile  forced  upon  itself  a  de- 
gree of  hastily  improvised  organization  that  was  in- 
tended by  no  one  individual,  but  that  was  necessary  for 
the  purpose  of  feeding  and  otherwise  supplying  so  many 
people.  The  numerous  new  commercial  towns  that 
sprang  up  in  the  valley  regions,  offered  fresh  chances 
to  disappointed  miners,  and  checked  both  their  discon- 
tent, and  their  desire  to  wander  off  alone.  Thus  the 
whole  life  was,  for  the  time,  far  healthier  than  the  life 
that  Brooks  saw.^ 

Bayard  Taylor,  who  traveled  through  the  couptry  as 
"  Tribune  "  correspondent  in  1849,^  and  who  saw  much 
of  the  mines,  is  an  observer  sufficiently  optimistic  to  suit 
the  most  enthusiastic.     He  came  at  just  the  moment  of 

1  A  suggestion  as  to  the  chronology  of  the  early  settlements  belongs 
here.  The  American,  the  Cosumnes,  and  the  Moquelumne  Rivers 
were  the  sites  of  the  early  mining  settlements  of  1848,  and  here  the 
greatest  activity  of  1849  also  went  on.  By  1850  the  large  camps  had 
extended  northward  as  far  as  the  North  Fork  of  the  Feather,  and  into 
Mariposa  County  on  the  South.  The  next  year  saw  much  activity  as 
far  north  as  Shasta.  Prospectors  were  of  course  always  in  advance  of 
the  larger  camps. 

2  Bayard  Taylor  left  San  Francisco,  to  return  to  the  East,  just  after 
the  fire  of  December  24, 1849.  See  El  Dorado  (Household  edition),  p. 
316. 


304  CALIFORNIA. 

his  life  ^  to  appreciate  the  young  community.  He  was 
himself  young,  ardent,  and  in  love  ;  he  had  come  to 
California  to  see  great  things,  and  he  certainly  saw 
them.  There  is  no  question  of  his  general  accuracy  in 
telling  what  he  really  saw,  and  he  has  the  power  that 
so  few  of  our  unimaginative  nation  have,  to  describe 
scenes,  people,  and  things,  instead  of  itemized  and  arbi- 
trary abstractions  of  a  numerical  or  technical  character. 
StiU,  we  must  understand  his  mood  ;  he  saw  whatever 
illustrated  life,  hope,  vigor,  courage,  prosperity.  It  was 
not  his  business  to  see  sorrow  or  misery.  He  saw,  for 
instance,  but  one  drunken  man  in  all  the  mines.'^  Oth- 
ers at  the  same  time  had  a  less  cheerful  experience  in 
this  respect.  Mr.  Theodore  T.  Johnson,  for  instance,* 
who  was  of  a  more  melancholy  turn  of  mind,  *'  frequently 
saw  miners  lying  in  the  dust  helpless  with  intoxication," 
and  we  need  no  such  evidence  to  convince  us  of  what  we 
well  know  a  priori.  Taylor's  optimism,  however,  is  not 
without  its  high  value  for  us ;  for  he  shows  us  what  the 
better  spirit  of  1849  really  was,  despite  all  its  so  fatal 
carelessness.  ''In  all  the  large  digging  districts,"  we 
learn  (p.  101),  "there  were  established  regulations, 
which  were  faithfully  observed.  .  .  .  There  was  as  much 
security  to  life  and  property  as  in  any  part  of  the  Union, 
and  as  small  a  proportion  of  crime."  This  he  knew 
partly  from  hearsay ;  although  as  to  hearsay  evidence, 
he  was  indeed  a  Uttle  uncritical,  since,  just  after  narrat- 

1  See  his  Biography,  by  Mrs.  Taylor  and  Mr.  H.  E.  Scudder  (Bos- 
ton, 1885),  vol.  i.  chap.  vii. 

2  El  Doi'odo,  p.  312.  People  drink  far  too  much,  thinks  Taylor, 
but  somehow  they  do  not  get  drunk  in  California.  This  was  a  not  un- 
common boast  of  early  Californians ;  but  nobody  makes  it  in  Califor- 
nia now. 

"  See  his  Sights  in  the  Gold  Region,  and  Scenes  by  thi  Way,  New 
York,  1849,  p.  182. 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  ORDER.  305 

ing  on  such  evidence  the  attempted  expulsion  by  Ameri- 
cans of  the  "  ten  thousand  "  Sonoran  miners  at  work  in 
the  southern  mines,  —  an  attempted  expulsion  that  he 
supposed  to  have  been  fairly  successful,  though  it  was 
not,  —  he  goes  on  at  once  to  assure  us  (p.  103),  that 
"  abundance  of  gold  does  not  always  beget  a  grasping 
and  avaricious  spirit,"  and  even  adds  that "  the  principles 
of  hospitality  were  as  faithfully  observed  in  the  rude  tents 
of  the  diggers,  as  they  could  be  by  the  thrifty  farmers 
of  the  North  and  West,"  and,  finally,  that  "  the  cosmo- 
politan cast  of  society  in  California,  resulting  from  the 
.comminghng  of  so  many  races  and  the  primitive  mode 
of  life,  gave  a  character  of  good-fellowship  to  all  its 
members."  All  this  he  tells  us,  not  by  way  of  irony 
about  the  recent  hospitality  and  good-fellowship  shown 
to  the  ten  thousand  Sonorans,  but  because  he  could 
"  safely  say,"  as  he  expresses  it,  "  that  I  never  met  with 
such  unvarying  kindness  from  comparative  strangers." 

But,  allowing  for  all  the  youthful  optimism,  Taylor's 
testilnony  is  good  evidence  for  the  peace  and  hospitality 
that  he  directly  experienced  or  heard  of  from  trustworthy 
people,  and  his  experience  was  large  and  varied.  He 
found,  at  the  beginning  of  winter  (p.  263)  the  camps  in 
the  "  dry  diggings  "  well  organized,  each  one  with  "  an 
alcalde  chosen,  and  regulations  estabUshed  as  near  as 
possible  in  accordance  with  the  existing  laws  of  the 
country."  The  alcaldes  had  very  great  powers,  but  were 
well  obeyed.  "  Nothing  in  California  seemed  more  mi- 
raculous to  me  than  this  spontaneous  evolution  of  social 
order  from  the  worst  elemepts  of  anarchy.  It  was  a 
lesson  worth  even  more  than  the  gold."  In  his  general 
summary  (in  chapter  xxx.)  of  the  social  condition  of 
California,  Taylor  finds  gambling  and  extravagance  very 
20 


306  CALIFORNIA. 

prevalent,  and,  together  with  the  excessive  drinking  of 
those  people  who  never  got  drunk,  he  considers  these 
the  great  evils  of  the  land.  But  the  simpler  virtues 
seemed  to  him  cheap  and  easy  in  California.  Gener- 
osity, hospitality,  democratic  freedom  from  all  social 
prejudices,  energy,  ardor,  mirthfulness,  industry :  all  he 
found  alike  prevalent.  As  he  saw  the  easy  work  of  the 
constitutional  convention,  and  took  part  in  the  prepa- 
rations for  the  subsequent  election,  public  spirit  also 
seemed  to  him  a  common  virtue  of  Californians.  The 
signs  of  the  too  general  lack  of  it  came  near  to  the  sur- 
face of  his  experience  sometimes ;  but  those  he  never 
saw.  On  p.  252  he  tells  us  of  the  scene  on  the  Lower 
Bar  of  the  Moquelumne,  at  the  first  state  election,  in 
November,  1849.  "  The  election  day  dawned  wet  and 
cheerlessly."  Until  noon  the  miners  lay  dozing  idly  in 
their  tents,  unable  to  work,  and  very  careless  about  the 
dignity  of  the  occasion.  At  last  the  voting  began  in  the 
largest  of  the  tents,  "  the  inspectors  being  seated  behind 
the  counter,  in  close  proximity  to  the  glasses  and  bottles, 
the  calls  for  which  were  quite  as  frequent  as  the  votes." 
This  was  indeed  harmless  enough  for  the  moment,  and 
the  ignorance  of  most  of  the  miners  about  the  men  voted 
for  was  natural.  But  more  characteristic  was  the  spirit 
in  which  men  voted.  One  of  the  candidates  lost  twenty- 
three  votes  for  having  been  seen  recently  electioneering 
in  the  mines  in  a  high-crowned  silk  hat.  Some  people 
voted  only  for  known  candidates.  But  many  chose 
otherwise,  a  representative  man  of  them  saying,  in  justi- 
fication :  "  When  I  left  home,  I  was  determined  to  go  it 
bUnd.  I  went  it  blind  in  coming  to  California,  and  I  'm 
not  going  to  stop  now.  I  voted  for  the  constitution,  and 
I  Ve  never  seen  the  constitution.     I  voted  for  all  the 


TEE  STRUGGLE  FOR  ORDER.  307 

candidates,  and  I  don't  know  a  damned  one  of  them. 
I  'm  going  it  blind  all  through,  I  am."  This  fellow  was 
only  too  decidedly  a  type  of  a  large  class.  And  such 
was  the  birthday  of  the  new  State  in  the  mountains. 

In  short,  1849  was  a  year  of  successful  impromptu 
camp-organizations,  and  of  general  external  peace  ;  but 
it  was  as  full  of  the  elements  of  future  confusion  as  it 
was  of  the  strength  and  courage  that  would  in  time 
conquer  this  confusion.  The  roving  habits  of  that  year 
long  remained  injurious  elements  in  the  more  exacting 
civilization  of  later  years.  And  even  the  memory  of 
the  easy  social  successes  of  those  days  often  proved  de- 
moralizing to  the  later  communities,  by  begetting  an  im- 
patience of  all  legal  delays  and  mistakes.  If  we  want, 
however,  really  to  understand  the  forces  of  early  Cali- 
fornia life,  we  must  study  the  year  1851,  a  year  which, 
despite  the  traditions  of  the  pioneers,  is  of  far  more  his- 
torical interest  than  1849.  The  latter  is  the  year  of  the 
making  of  the  constitution,  and  that  is  its  great  histori- 
cal merit ;  but,  for  the  mass  of  the  population,  it  is  also 
the  year  of  vague  airy  hopes,  of  noble  but  untried  social 
and  moral  promise,  of  blindness,  of  absurd  blunders^ 
and  in  general  of  fatal  self-confidence  and  selfishness. 
Its  one  poetical  aspect,  the  fervor  of  innocent,  youthful, 
romantic  hope  and  aspiration  among  its  better  men,  is 
something  as  brief  as  the  "  posy  of  a  ring."  1849  is, 
in  short,  the  boyish  year  of  California.  1851,  on  the 
contrary,  is  the  manly  year,  the  year  of  clearer  self-con- 
sciousness, of  lost  illusions,  of  bitter  struggles,  of  tried 
heroism,  of  great  crimes  and  blunders  indeed,  and  of 
great  calamities,  but  also  of  the  salvation  of  the  new 
State.  It  saw  the  truly  sad  and  significant  days  of  oui 
early  life,  and  we  should  honor  it  accordingly. 


308  CALIFORNIA. 

A  series  of  changes  in  the  methods  of  work,  a  series 
which  began  already  in  1849,  which  continued  through 

1850,  and  which  reached  a  first  culmination  early  in 

1851,  was  destined  to  render  far  more  stable  and  respon- 
sible this  roving  mining  life  of  1849.  The  work  done  by 
the  rocker  might  be  made  more  effective  by  enlarged 
appliances,  and  especially  by  increasing  the  amount  of 
water  used  in  washing.  Thus,  after  several  improved 
rockers  had  been  tried  with  varying  success,  the  Long 
Tom  (widely  used  in  1850),  and,  a  little  later,  that  finely 
simple  invention,  the  board  sluice,  separately  and  to- 
gether first  modified,  and  then  revolutionized,  the  whole 
business  of  placer-mining.^  Elaborate  descriptions  be- 
long not  here.  In  its  typical  form,  however,  a  sluice  is 
a  very  long  shallow  box,  which  may  extend  to  many 
hundreds  of  feet,  so  inclined  as  to  give  a  stream  of  water 
flowing  through  it  a  very  good  headway  in  the  box, 
especially  perhaps  in  the  upper  end.  Along  the  bottom 
of  the  sluice,  as  it  originally  was  made,  were  fastened 
low  cleats  of  wood  or  "  riffles,"  "  at  long  intervals  "  (so 

1  The  first  number  of  the  Sacramento  Transcript  that  appeared  as  a 
steamer  edition  on  April  26,  1850  (see  2d  vol.  of  the  Harvard  College 
Library  Transcript  file),  contains  on  a  single  page  an  interesting  series 
of  letters  from  the  various  mining  districts,  which  furnish  a  survey  of 
the  state  of  work  at  the  moment.  The  torn  is  mentioned  as  in  use  at 
Auburn,  but  is  not  otherwise  mentioned.  During  the  summer  it  be- 
came more  common.  The  second  steamer  Transcri})t,  May  29,  1850, 
discusses  mining  "  machinery  "  at  length,  mentioning  only  the  vari- 
ous improvements  of  the  rocker,  with  devices  for  the  use  of  quicksil- 
ver. As  late  as  the  Daily  Transcript  of  October  19,  1850,  I  find  the 
rocker  the  chief  instrument  mentioned  in  reports  from  the  mines,  al- 
though the  torn  is  known.  Not  until  May  2,  1851,  however,  do  I  find 
in  this  paper  an  account  of  "  sluice-washing"  as  a  new  and  profitable 
process.  It  then  rapidly  grew  in  favor,  and  the  tom  became  an  aux- 
iliary or  wholly  subordinate  instrument.  The  northern  mines  took 
up  new  devices  more  rapidly  than  the  southern. 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  ORDER.  309 

run8  the  description  in  the  "  Transcript,"  loc.  ciU).  Later 
the  riffles  were  better  arranged  with  special  regard  for 
durability  and  for  convenience  in  removing  them  to 
"  clean  up."  The  gold  particles  will  be  caught  and  will 
settle  just  above  the  riffles.  To  the  sluice  a  constant  and 
swift  stream  of  water  must  be  supplied  through  an  arti- 
ficial channel,  from  a  reservoir,  or  from  some  point  where 
it  is  convenient  to  tap  a  natural  stream.  This  free  sup- 
ply of  running  water  is  the  essential  element  of  sluice- 
mining.  The  sluice  thus  provided  by  one's  side,  one 
shovels  the  paying-gravels  into  it  from  one's  claim,  and 
60  the  earth  is  carried  down  to  the  "  tailings,"  an  as- 
sistant  removing  the  larger  stones  meanwhile.  One  con- 
tinues this  process  steadily  for  days,  or  even  weeks,  and 
then  upon  "  cleaning  up  "  one  expects  to  find  the  gold 
particles,  mingled  with  a  little  black  sand,  collected 
above  the  riffles.^  As  for  the  "  tom,"  in  its  earliei 
forms,  it  was  sunply  a  kind  of  very  short  sluice,  pro- 
vided with  a  strainer  for  catching  large  stones,  and 
supplied  with  water  by  hand. 

The  introduction  of  the  sluice,  with  its  various  auxil- 
iaries, not  only  secured  the  productiveness  of  California 
placer  mines  for  many  years,  but  it  acted  indirectly  on 
society,  as  a  check  to  the  confusion  and  disorder  that 
began  to  grow  among  the  miners  in  1850  and  1851. 
Although  the  early  camps  were  more  orderly  than  those 
of  1851,  they  were  so,  as  we  shall  see,  only  because  the 
demoralizing  influences  of  a  roving  and  hazardous,  irre- 
sponsible life   had  not  yet   begun   to  work   their  full 

1  It  is  impossible  to  give  any  extended  list  of  authorities  on  thiL 
topic,  and  needless  to.  Cf.  Hittell  jJ  Resources,  p.  307  (6th  ed.);  Ca- 
pron,  California  (Boston,  1854),  p.  208  ;  Auger,  Voyage  en  Calif arnie, 
p.  107,  for  views  of  various  periods. 


310  CALIFORNIA. 

effects.  The  disorders  of  1851  and  later  years  could 
be  checked,  and  were  checked,  because  they  occurred  in 
communities  that  now  had  vested  interests.  As  so  often 
happens  in  social  matters,  the  effects  here  began  to  show 
themselves  when  the  causes  were  already  in  decline ; 
and  some  of  the  camps  of  1851  reaped  the  whirlwind 
that  the  wanderers  of  1849  had  sown.  But  sluice- 
mining  meant  serious  responsibilities  of  many  sorts,  and 
so,  in  the  end,  good  order.  For,  in  the  first  place,  men 
now  had  to  work  less  independently,  and  more  in  large 
companies.  And  water  became  a  thing  that  could  no 
longer  be  taken  as  it  came,  but  that  must  be  brought  in 
a  steady  stream  to  the  right  place,  often  by  much  labor ; 
and  thus  it  acquired  a  market  value,  so  much  per  "  min- 
er's inch."  To  supply  it  in  the  dry  Sierra  valleys  be- 
came a  distinct  branch  of  industry.  It  might  be  needed 
to  wash  gravels  found  high  up  on  hill-sides  ;  and,  in 
order  to  get  it  there,  men  must  build  great  wooden  aque- 
ducts, or  "  flumes,"  from  far  up  the  mountain  streams, 
so  as  to  let  the  water  run,  of  its  own  impulse,  to  the 
needed  jjlace.  The  flumes  often  crossed  wide  valleys  ; 
they  were  themselves  the  outcome  of  months  of  labor, 
and  employed  in  time  many  millions  of  capital.  In 
various  improved  shapes  they  have  remained  essential 
to  the  mining  industry  ever  since. 

Nor  was  this  the  only  direction  in  which  gravel-min- 
ing increased  its  organization,  and  proved  its  power  to 
make  a  possible  basis  for  the  social  life  of  a  civilized 
community.  River-bed  mining,  undertaken  on  a  small 
scale  early,  and  on  a  large  scale  but  with  general  dis- 
aster in  1850,  was,  in  1851  and  later,  a  great  and  fruit- 
ful industry.*  It  constituted  one  of  the  boldest  and 
1  The  vast  river-bed  operations  of  1850,  both  in  the  northern  and  io 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  ORDER.  311 

most  dramatic  of  the  miner's  great  fights  with  fortune. 
He  had  to  organize  his  little  army  of  laborers,  to  risk 
everything,  to  toil  nearly  through  the  summer  for  the 
hope  of  a  few  weeks  at  most  of  hard-earned  harvest  at 
the  end ;  and  often,  at  the  very  moment  when  victory 
seemed  nearest,  an  early  rain  swept  everything  away, 
and  left  absolutely  no  return.  In  this  type  of  mining, 
whose  operations  have  been  very  frequently  described, 
the  object  was  to  turn  the  course  of  some  one  of  the 
greater  mountain-streams,  by  means  of  a  dam  and  a 
canal  or  flume.  The  bed  would  thus  be  left  bare,  per- 
haps for  miles,  while  the  flume  carried  along  the  whole 
body  of  the  stream,  whose  impulse  was  meanwhile  used 
to  turn  water  wheels  in  the  flume,  and  so  to  pump  from 
the  stream-bed  the  surplus  water  that  still  interfered 
with  active  operations.^ 

To  get  all  this  ready  was  a  slow  and  difficult  opera- 
tion. The  mountain  torrent,  winding,  cliff-bound  and 
swift,  was  no  easy  prey  to  catch  and  tame.  One  had 
first  to  wait  long  for  its  fall  before  beginning  work. 
When,  after  months  of  toil,  the  thing  was  done,  nobody 
knew  what  was  to  be  found  in  the  river-gravels  until 
mining  had  gone  on  for  some  time.  Meanwhile  nothing 
the  southern  mines,  are  reviewed  in  the  newspapers  of  that  autumn. 
See  in  particular,  for  the  early  undertakings  of  1849,  Wierzbicki,  p. 
41  and  p.  46  ;  and,  for  the  operations  of  1850,  the  Sacramento  Tran- 
script of  September  30  and  October  8,  1850.  The  causes  of  failure  in 
1850  were  inexperience  in  doing  the  mechanical  work,  a  frequent 
bad  choice  of  situations,  and  the  early,  though  light  rains  of  that 
autumn.  In  1851  the  dry  weather  continued  till  nearly  the  end  of 
the  year  and  success  was  very  general. 

1  Borth wick's  Three  Years  in  California,  contains  in  a  plate,  op- 
posite p.  208,  an  original  sketch  of  an  early  river-bed  mining  scene. 
Numerous  others  may  be  found  in  California  books.  Dredging  the 
rivers  was  early  dreamed  of,  but  of  course  never  succeeded  in  produ* 
ting  gold. 


312  CALIFORNIA. 

is  more  whimsical  than  the  beginning  of  the  California 
rainy  season.  The  first  great  black  clouds,  and  the  first 
steady,  warm  southwester,  may  come  already  in  Sep- 
tember, although  then  the  showers  are  apt  to  pass  by  in 
a  night.  November  is  yet  more  likely  to  hear  the  moan- 
ing of  the  first  long  autumn  storm.  But  there  are  years 
that  pass  away  altogether  before  the  serious  work  of 
winter  begins,  and  so  leave  to  the  following  January 
and  February  the  honors  of  the  first  "  clouds  and  flow- 
ers," and  keep  even  through  December  still  the  weari- 
ness of  the  "  dust  and  sky."  This  uncertainty,  which 
in  later  years  has  so  embittered  the  lives  of  farmers, 
was  in  the  early  days  significant,  although  with  a  differ- 
ence, for  the  river-bed  miners.  The  great  rains  would 
at  last  fall,  and,  unless  good  warning  had  been  given 
and  taken,  not  only  the  dams  would  burst  (as  for  that 
matter  they  must  then  in  any  case  soon  burst),  but 
the  flumes,  with  all  their  works,  would  go  plunging 
in  fragments  down  the  newly -born  brown  torrents. 
And  so  these  last  weeks  of  gold-harvesting  and  of  dan- 
ger to  all  the  capital  invested  were  weeks  of  feverish 
toil  and  anxiety.  Yet  on  such  food  some  of  the  wealth- 
iest camps  for  a  time  subsisted.  And  the  work  taxed 
all  the  energies  of  hundreds  of  men. 

Without  giving  further  space  to  descriptions  of  min- 
ing by  sinking  shafts  (or  "  coyote-holes,"  as  the  miners 
of  1860  and  1851  called  them),  and  without  dwelling 
upon  the  beginnings  of  quartz  mining  and  of  hydraulic 
mining,  we  must  return  to  our  main  topic.  It  was  nec- 
essary for  us  thus  to  examine  a  little  the  physical  side 
of  the  mining  industry  in  order  to  appreciate  the  growth 
of  the  social  life.  The  passage  from  lonely  pan  wash- 
ing to  the  vast  operations  of  the  flume  companies,  of 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  ORDER.  313 

the  river-bed  miners,  and  later  of  the  hydraulic  miners 
and  of  the  quartz  mining  companies,  did  not  remove 
from  mining  its  dangerous  character,  either  considered 
as  an  investment  for  capital,  or  viewed  as  a  basis  for  a 
sound  social  order.  But,  at  all  events,  men  found  in 
the  advance  of  the  industry  to  its  more  complex  forms, 
in  the  formation  of  the  necessary  great  partnerships, 
and  in  the  organization  of  labor,  the  thing  that  all  men 
need,  namely,  something  to  give  a  sense  of  mutual  du- 
ties, and  of  common  risks.  The  irresponsible  freedom 
of  the  gay  youth  who  had  crowded  the  ships  from  the 
Eastern  States  must  in  all  this  toil  be  sadly  limited. 
They  had  condemned  themselves  to  one  of  the  hardest 
and  often  bitterest  of  lives.  But,  at  all  events,  they 
were  now  bound  to  build  a  society.  Even  while  they 
organized  their  private  schemes  their  camp  became  a 
town,  and  themselves  townsmen. 

V.     THE    SPIRIT    OF   THE     MINERS'    JUSTICE    OF    1851   AND 
1852:    THE   MINERS    ON   THEIR    OWN   LAW. 

^^We  have  seen  how  the  mining  camp, 'from  the  first 
moments  of  its  existence,, was  easily  organized  so  as  to 
seem  a  rudely  but  for  some  time  effectively  governed 
little  state.  The  business  of  government,  us  we  have 
also  seen,  was  limited  to  keeping  the  public  peace  from 
grosser  disturbances,  to  punishing  theft  and  murder, 
and  to  settling  disputes  about  the  use  of  land  for  mining 
purposes.  The  miners  meanwhile  commonly  had  a  feel- 
ing that  purely  "private  disputes,"  that  is,  those  that 
did  not  violently  and  directly  assail  the  public  peace  in 
a  general  way,  were  not  properly  the  concern  of  the 
community.^  This  was,  to  be  sure,  a  fataUy  mistaken 
1  Cf.  Mr.  Shinn's  Mining  Camps,  p.  126. 


314  CALIFORNIA. 

notion,  and  could  not  be  consistently  carried  out.  But 
the  effort  to  carry  it  out,  by  ignoring  so  far  as  possible 
processes  for  debt,  and  by  paying  little  attention  to 
gamblers'  quarrels,  and  to  like  displays  of  violence, 
must  soon  demoralize  any  growing  community. 

However,  we  have  to  consider  the  young  mining 
town  as  it  was,  and  to  ask  what  was  the  consciousness 
that,  after  the  first  months  of  entirely  primitive  good 
order,  isolation,  and  effective  self-government  had 
passed  away,  the  miners  themselves  had  retained,  while 
they  still  continued  to  apply  to  criminals  this  rude  and 
primitive  camp  code.  >  Did  they  suppose  themselves  to 
be  still  really  and  justly  free  from  any  immediate  exter- 
nal authority  ?  Were  they  conscious  of  their  camp  as  of 
a  properly  independent  community,  having  a  right  to  its 
own  laws  ?  Did  they  retain  this  consciousness  after 
submission  to  the  state  courts  was  possible  ?  Or  did 
they,  on  the  contrary,  feel  their  improvised  code  to  be 
simply  lynch  law,  the  assertion  of  an  unauthorized  inde- 
pendence, and  so  an  actual  rebellion  against  the  estab- 
lished and  properly  sovereign  laws  of  the  land,  a  rebel- 
lion only  excused  by  the  necessity  of  the  moment? 
This  question,  comparatively  insignificant  in  1848  and 
1849,  becomes  of  much  greater  interest  as  soon  as  the 
new  State  was  born. 

To  this  question  Mr.  Shinn  has  answered,  in  his  "Min- 
ing Camps,"  on  the  basis  of  his  various  authorities,  that 
fVoB  miners'  organization  was  normally  not  only  efficient 
for  its  purposes,  but  also  wholly  in  earnest  in  its  work 
(p.  175),  and  that  the  miners'  justice,  notwithstanding  its 
occasional  lapses,  was  "  in  every  important  particular  " 
sharply  contrasted  with  lynch  law  (p.  230).  Mr.  Shinn 
draws  at  some  length  the  contrast  between  miners'  law 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  ORDER.  315 

and  lynch  law.  /  Lynch  law,  as  we  now  know  it,  through 
certain  too  familiar  newspaper  items  from  a  number  of 
rural  districts  in  our  South  and  West,  is  sudden  in  its 
action,  creates  no  true  precedents,  keeps  no  records, 
shuns  the  light,  conceals  the  names  of  its  ministers,  is 
generally  carried  out  in  the  night  by  a  perfectly  tran- 
sient mob,  expresses  only  popular  passion,  and  is  in  fine 
essentially  disorderly.  Miners'  law  was  open  in  its 
methods,  liked  regularity  of  procedure,^^ave  the  accused 
a  fair  chance  to  defend  himself,  was  carried  out  in 
broad  daylight,  and  by  men  publicly  chosen  ;  and  when 
state  and  county  organizations  were  sufficiently  devel- 
oped to  take  its  place,  it  gladly  resigned  its  sceptre  to 
the  regular  officers  of  the  law. 

This  is  the  strongest  possible  statement  on  the  side  of 
those  who  maintain  the  satisfactory  character  of  the 
miners'  code  for  the  simple  social  purposes  that  it  un- 
dertook to  attain.  I  am  very  anxious  to  do  this  view 
proper  justice.  That,  for  awhile,  in  new  and  orderly 
camps,  the  law  of  the  miners'  meetings  was  in  spirit  as 
effective  in  its  way  as  a  regular  code,  and  that*  those 
who  supported  it  hoped  in  time  to  bring  it  into  due  sub- 
ordination to  the  state  law,  I  readily  admit.  But  un- 
fortunately, camps  were  many,'their  primitive  mood  of 
perfect  good  order  was  brief,  and  the  typical  mining 
town  of  1851  and  later  years  had  passed  into  a  transi- 
tion stage,  where  it  was  nominally  in  connection  with 
organized  state  authorities,  and  was  actually  desirous  of 
managing  its  own  affairs  in  its  own  old  way.  \  To  this 
state  of  affairs,  Mr.  Shinn's  account  applies  with  great 
difficulty.  After  1849,  all  camps  were  nominally  under 
the  state  government.  New  camps  were  still  often  for 
a  little    time    practically  quite    isolated,  but  ere    long 


316  CALIFORNIA. 

state  organization  would,  at  least  in  name,  overtake 
them.  According  to  Mr.  Shinn,  the  miners'  meeting, 
or  the  council,  or  the  alcalde,  or  whatever  governed  the 
new  camp,  would  be  a  conscious  preparation  for  this 
coming  of  the  regular  law.  As  soon  as  the  organized 
legal  machinery  became  in  any  sense  more  than  a  name, 
the  orderly  instinct  of  the  miners  would  counsel  imme- 
diate submission,  and  they  would  voluntarily  abandon  or 
subordinate  their  organization  in  its  old  forms  to  these 
new  ones.  Until  the  state  organization  came,  the  min- 
ers, however,  would  be  conscious  of  their  rightful  inde- 
pendence. .  But,  much  as  this  theory  of  Mr.  Shinn's 
impressed  me  on  a  first  reading,  the  direct  evidence 
shows  that  after  1849  the  miners,  even  in  newly-organ- 
ized districts,  were  apt  to  regard  their  camp  law,  espe- 
cially the  criminal  part  of  it,  as  a  necessary  but  lawless 
device  for  forcing  a  general  peace.  Their  contemporary 
accounts  of  it  differ  from  their  accounts  of  their  land- 
laws.  These  latter  they  regard  as  furnishing  the  only 
just  and  truly  legal  method  of  dealing  with  mining 
rights.*  They  resist  strenuously  any  legislative  interfer- 
ence with  their  local  self-government  in  these  matters. 
They  insist  absolutely  upon  the  autonomy  of  the  miners* 
district,  as  regards  the  land ;  and  for  years,  against  all 
legislative  schemes  at  home,  and  all  congressional  prop- 
ositions at  Washington,  they  actually  maintained  this 
autonomy.  But  their  independence  in  matters  of  crim- 
inal law  was  brief,  and,  so  far  as  I  know,  was  seldom, 
almost  never,  defended  at  the  time  on  any  such  theoret- 
ical grounds  as  Mr.  Shinn's  ;  but  was  defended  solely  as 
being  the  last  resort  of  isolated  communities,  and  was 
confessedly,  in  a  strict  sense,  lynch  law. 

For  this  reason,  after  concrete  cases  of  violent  popu- 


I 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  ORDER.  317 


justice  in  the  mines,  we  find  the  community,  in 
speaking  of  the  affair,  generally  more  or  less  on  the  de- 
fensive. To  1849  this  statement  applies  in  but  very 
small  measure,  since  the  camps  of  1849  were,  on  the 
whole,  free  from  any  very  notable  general  disturbances 
of  which  any  contemporary  record  is  known  to  me  ; 
and  were  in  any  case  out  of  relation  to  higher  authority. 
But  in  1850,  and  stiQ  more  in  1851,  when  the  popular 
justice  of  the  mines  is  dealing  with  really  serious  compli- 
cations, one  finds  this  feeling  of  the  need  of  special  jus- 
tification of  each  such  act,  as  a  lawless  but  inevitable 
deed,  very  prevalent.  Of  the  sharp  line  of  demarcation 
between  lynch  law  and  miners'  law  the  miners  themselves 
are  thus  seen  to  be,  at  the  time,  largely  unconscious. 

It  would  be  easy  to  show  all  this  clearly  enough  by 
means  of  citations  from  those  contemporary  books  of 
travel  ^  whose  authors  are  not  seriously  hostile  to  the 
miners'  justice.  But  on  travelers'  accounts,  or  on  other 
books,  we  need  not  depend.  ,  The  newspaper  of  the  time 
is  the  best  source  of  information  about  the  spirit  of  the 
people.  The  California  newspapers  of  1850,  1851,  and 
1852  generally  defend  miners'  justice  ;  but  they  show 
us  two  things,  first  that  the  miners'  justice  was  not 
usually  sharply  distinguished  from  mob  law,  even  in  the 
minds  of  those  concerned  in  it ;  and  secondly  that,  in 
the  concrete  instances  of  the  use  of  miners'  justice,  we 
can  discover  aU  possible  gradations,  from  the  most 
formal,  calm,  and  judicial  behavior  of  a  healthy  young 
camp,  driven  by  momentary  necessity  to  defend  itself 
against  outrage,  down  to  the  most  abominable  exhibitions 
of  brutal  popular  passion,  or  even  of  private  vengeance. 

1  See  in  particular  Capron,  History  of  California,  Boston,  1854,  p. 
228  ;  pelano,  Life  on  the  Plains,  etc.,  chapter  xxv.  ;  Borthwick, 
Three  Yean  in  Calif  m-nia,  p.  223,  s<2q. 


318  CALIFORNIA. 

Specimen  contemporary  newspaper  comments  on  the 
popular  tribunals  are  not  hard  to  find ;  and  in  tone  they 
very  fairly  agree.  The  acts  of  these  popular  tribunals, 
when  not  outrageously  unjust,  are  generally  defended  ; 
but  almost  always  ^  without  any  consciousness  that  they 
stand  for  a  definite  stage  of  normal  legal  development, 
or  are  the  "friends  and  forerunners"  of  the  regular 
law ;  and  solely  on  the  ground  that  the  extreme  need 
justifies  the  outburst,  and  that  miners'  justice  is  a  la- 
mentable necessity.  Thus,  in  the  "  Sacramento  Tran- 
script "  of  February  12,  1851,  mfter  a  description  of  a 
very  common  sort  of  miners'  trial  at  Bridgport,  a  town 
on  Deer  Creek,  where  a  defaulting  partner  had  been 
overtaken  and  brought  back  by  his  fellows,  tried  by  an 
improvised  court,  convicted,  and  sentenced  to  a  severe 
whipping,  I  find  these  comments :  "  This  is  the  only  sure 
means  of  administering  justice,  and  although  we  may 
regret,  and  deem  lynch  law  objectionable,  yet  the  pres- 
ent unsafe  sort  of  prisons  we  have,  and  the  lenity  shown 
offenders,  are  such  as  to  induce  us  to  regard  such  an  ex- 
ercise of  ^wer  "  (concludes  the  editor)  with  compara- 
tive lenityy  \rust  before  this  issue,  the  editor  had  been 
repeatedly  complaining  of  the  general  insecurity  of  pris- 
ons. A  considerable  study  of  the  files  of  this  paper  leads 
me  to  think  this  expression  of  opinion  a  fair  representa- 
tive of  the  editorial  views.^  Nor  do  I  find  any  defender 
of  popular  justice  in  the  news  columns  or  correspond- 
ence of  this  paper  saying  anything  more  definite  in 
defense  of  miners'  lynching  than  this.    On  the  contrary, 

1  I  use  this  qualification  because  of  a  single  case  where  the  Sacra- 
mento Transcript,  as  we  shall  later  see,  speaks  of  miners'  justice  with- 
out regret,  and  as  utterly  opposed  to  lynch  law.  But  this  exception 
has  a  reason.    No  doubt  other  cases  exist,  though  seldom. 

2  Cf.  the  editorial  of  January.  14,  1861. 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR   ORDER.  319 


I  find  such  defenders  almost  always  recognizing  a  con- 
flict between  regular  law  and  miners'  law.  In  prac- 
tice, as  appears  from  this  evidence/  the  miners  de- 
manded of  the  regular  courts  more  than  that  they 
should  be  known  to  exist.  The  miners  demanded  that 
these  courts  should  be  judged  efficient  by  the  very  men 
who,  as  citizens,  created  them  under  the  constitution,  be- 
fore the  citizens  could  be  called  upon  to  surrender  any 
authority  to  them.  And  if  miners  chose  to  declare  a 
court  inefficient,  they  fell  at  any  time  free  to  supersede 
it  by  their  own  impromptu  tribunals.  And  then  they 
defended  these  tribunals,  not  as  normal  means  of  pun- 
ishing crime,  but  as  abnormal  necessities.") 

Thus,  in  a  letter  dated  Coloma,  May  7,'  and  published 
in  the  "  Transcript  "  of  May  12,  1851,  persons  who 
sign  themselves  "The  Miners"  give  an  "authentic 
statement "  of  a  recent  outburst  of  popular  indignation 
near  that  place.  An  honest  citizen,  as  it  seems,  had 
lost  from  his  wagon  some  packages  of  flour  and  butter, 
and  the  goods  were  traced,  apparently  by  scattered 
flour,  "  from  near  the  wagon  to  the  cabin  of  Jones  and 
partners"  and  identified  by  the  owner.  When  these 
facts  were  made  known,  the  "  company  present  "  chose 
a  "  jury  of  twelve  men,  together  with  one  presiding 
officer,  who  coolly  and  deliberately  proceeded  to  investi- 
gate the  facts  of  the  case,"  giving  "  Jones  and  his  part- 
ners "  a  fair  chance.  The  prisoners  were  found  guilty 
by  the  jury,  and  the  "  company  present,  numbering 
about  33,"  concurred  by  unanimous  vote  in  the  verdict. 
Then  they  considered  what  to  do.  The  district  was  the 
oldest  in  the  mines,  since  it  was  in  that  district  that 
Marshall  had  first  found  gold ;  and  the  courts  were 
well   established.      Many  of  the    crowd  were  disposed 


320  CALIFORNIA. 

accordingly  to  hand  over  the  prisoners  to  the  officers  at 
Coloma.  But  ere  they  had  set  out  for  the  town,  other 
voices  were  heard.  "  To  deliver  the  prisoners  to  the 
civil  authorities  would  be  tantamount  to  an  acquittal 
of  them,  and  would  do  no  good,  further  than  to  help  fill 
the  pockets  of  officers  and  lawyers."  So  it  was  said, 
and  they  "  resolved  to  settle  the  matter  without  delay." 
The  prisoners  were  hereupon  treated  very  leniently, 
being  ordered  to  refund  the  value  of  the  property  stolen, 
and  to  leave  the  district  before  the  next  morning,  or  else 
to  be  whipped  and  then  banished,  in  case  they  sought  to 
stay.  Lenient  the  offer  was,  though  not  strictly  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  Bill  of  Rights.  The  prisoners,  be- 
ing given  the  choice,  elected  to  leave  un-whipped,  or  at 
least  said  so.  But,  possibly  remembering  the  Bill  of 
Rights,  they  concluded  upon  reflection  to  go  about  their 
business  as  usual,  and  "  neglected  to  leave."  Where- 
upon twenty  or  twenty-five  persons,  hearing  of  this  con- 
tempt of  court,  hunted  up  Jones  the  next  day,  "and 
were  proceeding  to  a  suitable  place  to  inflict  the  punish- 
ment, when  the  sheriff  and  his  subs  interfered  in  behalf 
of  the  law,"  promised  to  keep  the  prisoner  safe,  and 
"  induced  "  the  mob  to  give  him  up.  "  He  was  accord- 
ingly committed  to  jail,  and  tried  next  day  before  Jus- 
tice Brooks.  And  notwithstanding  the  plain,  pointed, 
irresistible,  and  unquestionable  evidence  of  the  guilt  of 
the  prisoner,  he  was  informed  by  the  court  that  the 
charges  against  him  were  not  sufficient  for  conviction ; 
and  no  doubt  Mr.  Jones  now  thinks  that  he  is  at  perfect 
liberty  to  steal  any  and  everything  he  can,  provided  he 
can  be  tried  by  the  so  termed  courts  of  justice."  Such 
is  the  "  authentic  statement "  of  the  miners.  But  their 
comments  are  interesting,  because  they  illustrate  just  the 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  ORDER.  321 

sense  of  a  conflict  between  miners'  justice  and  the  regular 
law  which  was  so  common  in  those  days.  "  Would  it  be 
less,"  contmue  the  signers  of  the  letter,  "  than  the  de- 
serts  of  such  officers  as  these,  if  they  had  to  receive  the 
dues  of  Jones  as  their  own,  in  every  case  where  they 
let  the  guilty  go  unpunished  ?  We  have  the  following 
to  say  in  reference  to  our  position  in  this  neighborhood, 
as  it  regards  lynch  law  :  we  are  to  a  man  opposed  to 
any  such  law,  and  we  believe  there  is  no  part  of  Califor- 
nia in  which  the  citizens  would  be  more  submissive  to 
the  civil  authorities  than  ourselves,  could  the  laws  as 
designed  by  our  legislature  be  executed  faithfully.  But 
when  we  call  on  the  civil  authorities  for  redress,  we  are 
repulsed.  Indeed,  sirs,  we  would  not  be  surprised  if  the 
present  administrators  of  the  law  in  this  part  of  the 
country  should  make  the  whole  community  a  mob.  .  .  . 
So  long  as  this  evil  exists  to  the  extent  that  it  now  does, 
we  will  find  our  citizens  looking  to  themselves  for  pro- 
tection." 

But  we  need  not  depend  on  any  one  newspaper.  In 
the  "  San  Francisco  Herald "  for  April  4,  1852,^  is  a 
letter  from  a  "  special  correspondent,"  plainly  a  resident, 
at  Moquelumne  Hill,  a  prominent  camp  in  the  southern 
mines.  A  Vigilance  Committee  had  been  formed  there 
for  about  two  months.  Since  its  formation  there  had 
occurred  but  one  murder.  "The  strong  current  of 
crime  "  which  had  theretofore  swept  "  everything  before 
it,"  and  which  the  regular  courts  had  never  checked, 
had  been  checked  by  the  committee,  and  order  had  be- 
gun to  reign  on  the  Hill.  Some  weeks  had  passed 
without  disturbance,  "and  it  was  supposed  that  the 
committee  were  no  longer  on  the  lookout."  But  alas ! 
this  tale  of  prosperous  peace  was  a  short  one. 
1  Harvard  College  Library  file. 


822  CALIFORNIA. 

"A  number  of  robberies  have,  within  the  last  ten 
days,  been  committed."  "  Scarcely  a  night  has  passed 
for  some  time  but  something  has  been  stolen,  or  some 
man  robbed."  At  last,  after  one  Perkins  had  been 
robbed  of  forty-five  ounces,  a  Sonoran,  by  name  Carlos, 
was  found  on  a  tent  floor,  apparently  drunk.  The  tent, 
as  was  seen,  had  just  been  cut  open,  Carlos  had  no  busi- 
ness there,  and  seemed  too  drunk  to  explain  his  errand. 
He  staggered  off,  but  was  soon  discovered  to  be  sober 
enough  indeed,  was  arrested  by  the  committee,  was 
found  to  have  gold  specimens  in  his  possession  that 
Perkins  could  identify  as  a  part  of  the  lately  stolen 
gold,  and  was  at  last  induced  to  confess  himself  one  of 
the  recent  thieves.  So  "  the  committee  deliberated  what 
should  be  done  with  him.  It  was  thought  that  if  he  was 
handed  over  to  the  city  authorities,  he  might  perhaps 
be  committed  to  Jackson  jail;  where,  if  he  remained 
twenty-four  hours,  it  would  be  because  he  liked  the  ac- 
commodations, and  had  no  fear  of  being  convicted." 
To  flog  and  release  him  was  thought  equally  useless, 
since  the  committee  knew  his  previous  reputation,  and 
despaired  of  reforming  him.  "  If  hung,  there  would  be 
one  thief  less,"  and  one  warning  more.  So  the  com- 
mittee resolved  to  hang  him.  Carlos  made  no  objection, 
but  asked  only  for  a  good  supper,  a  priest,  and  a  glass 
of  brandy.  The  committee  cheerfully  complied  with 
his  requests,  and,  after  having  received  such  religious 
and  other  consolation  as  his  poor  soul  desired,  Carlos 
slept  well  all  night,  walked  coolly  to  his  gallows  the  next 
morning,  and  cheerfully  helped  about  his  own  execution. 
So  much  for  the  case.^  The  comments  are  thoroughly 
characteristic. 

1  The  main  facts  are  confirmed  by  the  account  in  the  San  Fran* 
tUco  Alta,,  for  April  5,  1852,  steamer  edition. 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  ORDER.  323 

"  It  is  much  to  be  deplored,"  says  the  correspondent, 
"  that  necessity  should  exist  for  such  extreme  measures. 
This  execution  will  doubtless  be  condemned  by  many  in 
California,  and  by  more  in  the  old  States.  The  sickly 
sentimentalist  will  hold  up  his  hands  in  horror;  the 
officers  of  the  law  will  be  found  loud  in  their  indigna- 
tion at  what  they  will  call  a  ruthless,  illegal  deed ;  the 
ermined  judge  who  sits  secure  in  his  seat  at  a  salary  of 
thousands  per  year  will  be  indignant  that  the  people 
should  presume  to  take  any  measures  to  protect  their 
own  Ufe  and  property  and  punish  offenders  without 
their  \_sic]  aid  and  sanction  ;  but  those  who  live  in  well- 
ordered  communities,  where  they  have  officers  who  know 
their  duty  and  dare  do  it,  can  have  no  idea  of  the  situa- 
tion in  which  we  are  placed.     Whose  fault  is  it  ? 

"The  truth  is,  it  has  been  absolutely  and  impera- 
tively necessary  for  us  to  protect  ourselves,  and,  law  or 
no  law,  it  will  be  done.  We  have  a  Committee  of  Vig- 
ilance who  are  determined  that,  until  a  different  state 
of  things  exist,  they  will  not  disband,  but  will  punish  in 
the  most  exemplary  manner  all  and  every  high-handed 
offense  against  life  and  property." 

Any  reader  is  struck  by  the  force  of  this  plea,  and 
he  fully  agrees  that,  Hke  "  Jones  and  partners  "  at  Co- 
loma,  Carlos  may  have  been  as  verily  a  dog  as  the 
report  makes  him.  But  with  Jones  and  Carlos,  in  these 
cases,  we  have  little  concern.  Our  interest  is  chiefly 
with  the  honest  men  themselves,  and  witli  their  unhappy 
state.  The  reader  must  have  observed  the  curiously  ex- 
ternal point  of  view  that  the  writers  of  the  two  letters 
just  cited  adopt,  as  they  discuss  their  own  society. 
"  People  cannot  understand  our  woes,"  they  patheti- 
cally insist.     "  We  have  lawyers,  judges,  sheriffs,  pris- 


324  CALIFORNIA. 

ons,  but,  alas !  no  justice,  unless  we  fight  for  it  our- 
selves, treating  our  own  law-officers  as  aliens,  and  be- 
coming a  mob.  Oh,  the  depravity  of  those  courts  and 
of  those  lawyers  !  "  But,  as  we  are  tempted  to  retort : 
Whose  gold,  now  hoarded  by  the  pound  in  insecure 
tents,  the  prey  of  every  vagabond,  might  have  contrib- 
uted to  build  a  strong  jail  at  Coloma  or  at  Jackson  ? 
Or,  perhaps,  was  it  not  of  a  truth  felt  unnecessary  to 
build  a  strong  jail  —  unnecessary  just  because  one 
chose  in  one's  heart,  meanwhile,  to  think  ropes  a  little 
cheaper  than  bricks,  and,  for  the  purpose,  just  as 
strong  ?  Nay,  is  all  the  "  sickly  sentimentalism,"  or  all 
the  cant,  on  one  side  in  this  matter  ?  Who  whines 
perpetually  and  tediously,  aU  through  these  early  days, 
about  "  necessity,"  and  "  the  first  law  of  nature,"  and 
the  defects  of  the  social  order,  and  all  his  gloomy  so- 
cial afilictions  ;  even  while,  in  fact,  his  whole  purpose 
is  to  store  his  gold  dust,  to  enjoy  his  private  fun,  and 
then  to  shake  off  the  viler  dust  of  the  country  from  hij 
feet  as  soon  as  possible  ?  Who  but  the  poor  outraged 
miner  himself,  whom  necessity,  if  not  manhood,  will 
ultimately  compel  to  apply  himself  to  his  duty  and  tc 
stop  his  whining  ? 

Nothing  is  capable  of  clearer  demonstration  from 
contemporary  documents  than  the  color  of  the  sentimentj 
of  a  community,  in  case  one  can  find  the  very  words  oi 
a  representative  people.  The  details  of  transactions  il 
is  harder  to  state  accurately.  In  passing  from  the 
motives  of  the  miners'  popular  justice  to  its  methods 
and  more  characteristic  incidents,  we  shall  be  nmch  at 
the  mercy  of  our  witnesses.  Yet  of  tliis  the  reader 
may  be  assured.  What  we  have  here  further  to  narrate 
about  miners'  justice  will  rest,  as  far  as  possible,  like 


I 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  ORDER,  325 


the  foregoing,  on  contemporary  evidence.  For  what  a 
pioneer  can  say,  after  many  years,  about  the  incidents 
of  a  given  affair  is  worth  Httle  or  nothing  in  compari- 
son with  any  fairly  objective  contemporary  evidence, 
unless,  indeed,  the  pioneer  in  question  was  himself  di- 
rectly concerned  in  the  very  incidents  that  he  relates. 
And  for  our  purposes  just  here,  no  vague  generalizations 
about  the  early  justice  will  serve  such  as  are  so  familiar 
in  the  later  books  and  essays,  by  romancers  and  pio- 
neers, on  those  early  days.     We  must  go  afresh  to  the 


VI.    MINERS     JUSTICE   IN  ACTION.  —  CHARACTERISTIC 
SCENES   AND   INCIDENTS. 

All  gradations,  we  have  said,  can  be  found  in  the 
popular  justice  of  the  mines,  from  the  most  orderly 
and  wisely  conducted  expression  of  outraged  popular 
sentiment  which  is  in  any  way  possible  outside  of  the 
forms  of  law,  down  to  the  most  brutal  and  disgraceful 
outbursts  of  mob  fury.  I  wish  that  the  latter  class  of 
incidents  had  been  rarer  than  one  actually  finds  them. 
But  the  day  for  either  vindicating  or  condemning  by  a 
labored  argument  the  pioneer  life  as  a  whole  has  long 
since  passed.  ^  The  true  vindication  of  those  days  -r- 
their  only  possible  vindication  —  is  the  great  and  pro- 
gressive State  that  grew  up  upon  that  soil,  and  that 
thenceforth  was  destined  to  do  for  our  land  a  very  real 
service.  But,  after  all,  neither  to  vindicate  nor  to  con- 
demn the  whole  community  is  our  desire  ;  we  want,  for 
the  sake  of  our  own  instruction  in  political  duties,  to 
study  the  various  individual  events  and  tendencies  that 
determined  social  life,  and  to  let  our  praise  or  our  blame 
fall  upon  them. 


326  CALIFORNIA, 

The  more  regular  and  orderly  popular  justice  of  the 
mines  took  place  especially  in  the  newer  and  more  iso- 
lated camps,  although  circumstances  might  bring  it  to 
pass  almost  anywhere  in  the  mines.  ,  We  find  it  ex- 
pressing itself  often  in  very  quaint  forms,  using,  gener- 
ally, considerable  severity,  but  keeping  up  a  show  of 
good-temper  throughout.  Where  it  was  thus  free  from 
passion, 'its  verdicts  seeni,  at  all  events, /to  have  been 
generally^'in  accordance  with  the  facts^y whatever  we 
may  say  of  the  wisdom  of  its  sentences. 

A  study  of/ the  lynching  affairs  thus  directly  from  the 
sources  seems  to  me  to  throw  a  wholly  new  light  upon 
the  character  of  which  they  were  the  too  frequent  ex- 
pression.'  Many  of  the  popular  legends  about  lynching 
that  have  influenced  the  more  modern  and  romantic 
tales  of  the  early  days  distort  very  curiously  the  true 
motives  of  the  miners.  ''  A  mining  camp  is  presented  to 
us  in  such  stories  as  a  community  that  always  especially 
delighted  in  its  lynching  parties,  and  that  went  about 
them  with  all  the  jovial  ferocity  of  young  tigers  at  play. 
But  when  the  lynching  affair  was  once  begun^  then,  as 
the  story-tellers  will  have  it^  the  popular  court  was  easily 
moved  by  purely  sentimental  considerations.  A  timely 
offer  of  drinks,  a  good  joke,  or,  far  better  still,  an  ingen- 
ious display  of  ruggedly  pathetic  eloquence,  might  suffice 
to  turn  the  court  aside  from  its  dangerous  undertakings. 
The  whole  affair  was  a  kind  of  great  and  grim  joke, 
and  sentimentalism  could  always  take  the  place  of  the 
joking  mood,  and,  if  it  did  so,  might  save  the  prisoner. 
In  the  dramatic  presentation  of  such  scenes  many  writers 
have  amused  themselves.  Thus  the  lynching  affair, 
even  if  tragic  in  outcome,  is,  throughout,  enlivened,  ac- 
cording  to   these   accounts,  by   absurdly   conventional 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  ORDER.  327 

humor ;  and  often,  when  the  outcome  is  to  be  less  terri- 
ble, the  tragedy  is  averted  by  conventional  eloquence. 
To  take  a  very  recent  instance  of  such  story-telling,  I 
read,  not  long  since,  in  the  "  Overland  Monthly,"  a 
pretended  sketch  of  an  early  lynching  scene,  in  which 
the  prisoner's  life  is  at  length  saved  by  the  ingenuity  of 
his  volunteer  defender,  an  old  man  whose  reputation 
for  veracity  stands  very  high  in  the  camp  where  this 
scene  is  supposed  to  take  place.  This  veracious  de- 
fender, namely,  who  has  never  before  seen  the  prisoner, 
concludes  to  save  the  latter's  life  by  making  an  excep- 
tion in  his  favor,  and  lying  about  him.  The  prisoner's 
face  is  pock-marked,  and  the  defender  accordingly 
makes  up,  on  the  spur  of  the  moment,  a  long  story 
about  how  this  poor  wretch  once  nursed  a  very  un- 
friendly man,  well  known  to  the  defender  himself, 
through  an  attack  of  small-pox,  and  so  caught  the  in- 
fection. The  defender's  tale  is  made  as  harrowing  as 
possible.  Its  effect  is  electric.  The  prisoner  stands 
accused  of  a  very  serious  crime  and  the  evidence 
against  him  is  strong  ;  but  all  is  forthwith  forgotten. 
Judge  Lynch  offers  him  tobacco,  gives  him  a  drink, 
and  sets  him  at  hberty,  on  the  ground  that  so  saintly  a 
man  as  one  who  volunteers  to  be  a  small-pox  nurse 
under  very  harrowing  circumstances  is  at  liberty  to  do 
a  little  occasional  mischief  in  those  diggings  without 
question. 

Now,  such  sentimentalism  as  this  is  utterly  foreign  to 
the  typical  miners'  lynching  affair,  whether  orderly  or 
not.  The  typical  lynching  occurred,  indeed,  in  a  com- 
munity of  Americans,  where  everybody  was  by  habit 
disposed  to  joke  in  public  and  seem  as  cheerful  as  he 
could,  and  to  listen  to  all  sorts  of  eloquence  ;  but  the 


328  CALIFORNIA. 

affair  itself  was  no  expression  of  this  formal  joviality, 
nor  yet  of  this  submissiveness  to  oratorical  leadership. 
It  proceeded  from  a  mood  of  utter  revulsion  against  the 
accustomed  good-humor  of  the  camp.  It  was  regarded 
as  a  matter  of  stern,  merciless,  business  necessity.  It 
was  unconscious  of  any  jocular  character.  Disorderly 
lynching  affairs  in  some  few  cases,  do,  indeed,  appear 
to  have  been  mere  drunken  frolics.  But  nearly  all, 
even  of  the  disorderly  affairs,  and  that,  too,  where  their 
cruelty  was  most  manifest,  had  in  them  no  element  of 
the  merely  jocular.  They  expressed  an  often  barbarous 
fury ;  but  they  pretended  to  be  deeds  of  necessity,  and 
a  sentimental  speech  in  a  prisoner's  favor  would  have 
done  nothing  save,  possibly,  to  endanger  the  prisoner's 
life  yet  more,  or  even  to  endanger  that  of  his  advocate. 
No  one  understands  the  genuine  lynching  who  does  not 
see  in  it  a  stern  laying  aside  of  all  these  characteristic 
American  traits  of  good-humor  and  of  oratorical  senti- 
mentalism  themselves,  for  the  sake  of  satisfying  a  mo- 
mentary popular  passion,  aroused  against  the  forces  of 
disorder.  Just  because  the  miner  was  accustomed  to 
be  so  tolerant  and  easy-going,  these  moments  of  the  out- 
burst of  popular  fury  found  him,  whether  orderly  or 
not,  in  all  typical  cases,  merciless,  deaf  to  all  pathetic 
appeals,  unconscious  of  anything  save  the  immediate 
public  necessity.  What  element  of  comedy  remained 
in  some  of  these  affairs  was  generally  an  unconscious 
element. 

And  so,  while  not  all  the  lynching  scenes  are  equally 
tragic,  a  large  class  of  them  is  doubtless  well  typified  by 
the  following  very  gloomy  tragedy,  which  suggests,  if 
one  wants  to  reflect  upon  it,  a  world  of  horror  behind 
the  scenes.     This  is,  namely,  a  trial  for  murder,  occur- 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR   ORDER.  329 

ring  in  1851,  at  Shasta,  then  the  centre  of  a  newer  min- 
ing region.  I  use  the  report  communicated  from  Shasta 
to  the  "  Sacramento  Transcript  "  of  April  3,  1851,  and 
give  the  details  at  some  length  just  because  the  affair  is 
so  characteristic. 

At  Oak  Bottom,  about  ten  miles  from  Shasta,  there 
lived,  in  March  of  that  year,  two  partners,^  Easterbrook 
and  Price,  who  had  come  from  the  lower  mining  region 
together,  a  few  months  before,  leaving  on  their  way  a 
third  partner,  disabled  by  poison  oak,  at  Grass  Valley. 
The  two  had  left  families  at  home  in  the  East,  and  were 
come  to  California  to  win  fortunes  for  them,  Easter- 
brook, in  particular,  expecting,  like  so  many  others,  to 
raise  the  mortgage  from  his  farm.  Nobody  seems  to 
have  questioned  their  respectability,  or  their  mutual 
friendship.  One  evening  in  March,  the  two  went 
together  to  the  "  residence  of  Mr.  Isaac  Roop,"  as  it  is 
called  in  the  report.  This  was  next  door,  in  fact,  to 
their  own  tent,  and  was  a  "  residence  "  where  one  drank 
"  ardent  spirits,"  as  the  report  in  its  exact  way  calls  the 
drink  there  found,  where  one  also  played  cards,  and 
where  one  had  to  pay  a  bill  at  the  end  of  the  evening. 
As  the  hours  went  by,  Easterbrook,  whom  nobody  seems 
to  have  accused  afterwards  of  being  an  habitual  drunk- 
ard, grew  a  little  excited  and  quarrelsome,  and  after 
some  minor  difficulty  with  a  third  person,  he  found 
himself  refused  more  liquor  by  the  cautious  Mr.  Isaac 
Roop.  Thereupon  Easterbrook  called  for  his  bill,  and 
began  to  quarrel  over  the  amount  of  it.  Price,  mean- 
while, had  gone  to  their  tent  near  by,  and  had  lain  down 

1  I  give  real  names  only  to  guaranty  the  accuracy  of  my  report. 
After  so  many  years  there  is  little  danger  that  the  persons  will  be 
Tecognized. 


330  CALIFORNIA. 

on  his  blanket,  whether  drunken  himself  or  no,  does 
not  appear.  At  all  events,  hearing  Easterbrook's  voice, 
he  called  out,  as  Easterbrook  at  last  proceeded  to  pay 
his  score  :  "  Don't  be  paying  out  other  people's  money." 
Easterbrook  started  at  the  insult,  rushed  back  to  the 
tent  in  fury,  cursing,  and  told  his  partner  to  prepare  for 
death.  Price  had  been  only  joking,  and  was  not  moved 
by  the  threat.  "Zay  down,''  he  was  heard  to  say 
quietly,  "  lay  down  and  go  to  sleep"  An  eye-witness 
saw,  by  whatever  dim  light  there  was,  that  Easterbrook 
dragged  out  a  gun  from  under  some  baggage.  In  an 
instant  one  heard  a  report,  and  Easterbrook  himself  was 
fleeing  from  the  tent  into  the  night.  When  the  by- 
standers, who  at  once  pui'sued,  had  caught  him  in  a 
little  time,  he  said,  apparently  with  the  air  of  one  wak- 
ing :  "  Have  I  shot  Price  ?  "  And  when  they  said  that 
he  had,  he  replied  :  "  Do  as  you  please  with  me  ;  it  was 
an  accident,  and  I  was  drunk."  Price  lay  gasping  ;  he 
never  spoke  again,  and  died  in  about  an  hour. 

The  next  day  Easterbrook  was  brought,  guarded, 
down  to  Shasta,  over  the  ten  miles  of  new  miners'  road. 
There,  just  after  midday  dinner,  a  meeting  of  the  citi- 
zens was  called.  Perfect  decorum  prevailed ;  a  ghastly 
air  of  ordinary  and  business-like  propriety  pervades  the 
stiffly  written  report.  There  were  doubtless  lawyers 
present.  The  assembled  people  first  chose  a  chairman 
and  secretary,  and  then  a  committee  of  three,  to  select 
a  trial  jury  of  twelve  men  "  to  try  the  cause  before  the 
people."  They  also  passed  a  resolution  summoning  the 
witnesses,  and  guarantying  to  the  accused  a  fair  and 
impartial  trial ;  and  they  then  appointed  an  officer  "  to 
carry  into  effect  the  verdict  of  the  jury,  and  summons 
to  his  aid  as  many  persons  as  might  be  necessary  to  re- 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR   ORDER.  831 

lease  or  execute  the  prisoner."  The  chairman  swore  in 
the  jury,  and  called  the  witnesses  ;  and  now  at  length 
the  story  of  the  homicide  was  heard.  The  prisoner  was 
thereafter  asked  what  he  had  to  say  in  defense.  He 
replied  briefly,  but  not  without  some  natural  and  terrible 
pathos.  He  had  been  in  the  mines  only  since  the  29th 
of  the  last  July.  Never,  before  this  one  time,  had  he 
in  all  his  life  "  had  words  "  with  any  man.  Never  had 
he  "  done  anything  to  cause  a  blush."  Standing  now 
as  one  on  the  verge  of  the  grave,  he  could  declare  in 
God's  name  that  he  felt  in  his  mind  "guiltless  of  any 
premeditated  intention  to  kill  Mr.  Price."  ("  Mr."  has 
its  sadly  formal  ring  as  applied  to  the  dead  partner  at 
this  moment.)  Mr.  Price  was  a  "  good  man."  The 
prisoner  had  never  had  any  feeling  against  him.  And 
Price  had  left  "  a  wife,  and  a  daughter  who  is  now  mar- 
ried." But,  as  for  the  prisoner  himself,  "  I  have  a  wife 
and  three  children.  The  eldest  is  nine  years  of  age. 
My  circumstances  are  such,  that,  should  I  leave  the 
world,  my  wife  and  children  will  be  penniless.  I  have 
a  farm  which  is  incumbered,  and  without  my  return 
will  be  sacrificed.  It  is  not  for  myself,  but  my  wife 
and  children  that  I  plead.  Taking  my  life  would  not 
bring  to  life  Mr.  Price.  It  would  only  make  one  more 
widow,  and  three  more  orphans,  and  on  their  account 
only  do  I  plead  for  mercy,  as  any  of  you  would,  were 
you  in  the  same  unfortunate  condition." 

This  defense  seems  to  have  been  noted  down  by  the 
secretary  of  the  meeting,  for  the  newspaper  report  is 
very  formally  worded,  and  is  called  official.  There 
were  no  other  arguments  heard  on  either  side,  the  jury 
feeling  no  need  of  further  advice.  Shasta  was  not  a 
place  for  tears,  nor  for  pity  ;  and  the  jury,  after  a  brief 


332  CALIFORNIA. 

consultation,  brought  in  a  written  verdict,  signed  by  each 
one,  declaring  Easterbrook  guilty  of  murder  in  the  first 
degree,  and  sentencing  him  to  "  be  punished  immediately 
by  hanging  by  the  neck  until  he  is  dead."  The  meeting 
had  convened  at  two  o'clock.  It  was  now  after  four. 
The  prisoner  was  given  about  an  hour  to  set  his  affairs 
in  order,  and  was  hanged  between  five  and  six.  —  The 
*'  Transcript  "  editor  regards  this  as  a  truly  wonderful 
case,  finds  in  it  a  fine  spirit  of  law  and  order,  and  calls 
it  "an  exhibition  of  the  power  of  the  American  mind 
over  that  which  we  have  heretofore  known  as  mob  law." 
The  reason  for  this  exceptional  and  benevolent  mood 
on  the  editor's  part  is  a  recent  occurrence  in  Sacramento 
itself,  the  "  Roe  "  lynching,  which  had  for  the  moment 
made  popular  justice  seem  to  him  of  vast  importance. 
Usually,  as  we  have  seen,  he  was  less  enthusiastic. 

I  know  not  whether  the  story  of  the  "  Outcasts  of 
Poker  Flat "  was  founded,  as  report  has  declared,  upon 
some  oral  tradition  that  reached  the  author  years  later, 
of  a  real  incident  of  early  times.  If  so,  then  the  real 
incident  itself  may  have  been  the  expulsion  from  this 
same  town  of  Shasta,  in  August,  1851,  of  all  the  so-called 
"  suspicious  "  characters  of  the  town,  "  seven  men  and 
two  women.'*  ^  A  "  hay- yard  "  had  been  burned  down, 
and  report  made  the  act  the  work  of  an  incendiary. 
All  suspicious  characters  were  at  once  ordered  out  of 
town;  "they  complied,"  and  passed  down  towards  a 
brook  called  "  Whiskey  Creek."  Now  as  these  nine 
went  by  the  way,  they  met,  oddly  enough,  coming  down 
from  Oak  Bottom,  our  friend  Mr.  Isaac  Roop  himself, 
at  whose  "  residence  "  the  two  partners  had  passed  the 
fatal  evening  some  five  months  before.  I  know  not 
1  Alta  California  of  August  20,  1851. 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  ORDER.  333 

what  general  disgust  with  respectable  gentlemen  who 
had  "  residences  "  to  leave  when  out  for  their  airings, 
or  what  feeling  of  recklessness  it  was,  that  moved  these 
nine ;  but  one  of  them  hereupon  shot  at  Mr.  Roop. 
Were  this  only  a  book  of  fiction,  they  would  have  killed 
him,  by  way  of  ending  the  story  well.  But  this  is  his- 
tory, and  one  is  bound  to  say  that,  according  to  the  re- 
port here  cited,  they  missed  Mr.  Roop  altogether,  who 
went  his  way,  probably  with  more  than  his  accustomed 
quickness,  into  Shasta,  and  told  what  they  had  done. 
Whereupon  the  miners  of  that  town  sent  out  an  armed 
party,  who  very  firmly  and  leniently  escorted  the  nine 
southward  to  the  border  of  the  county,  with  the  intent 
of  sending  them  thence  into  banishment ;  and  of  their 
fate,  and  of  Mr.  Roop's,  in  subsequent  days,  I  know 
nothing.  This  then  must  suffice  as  concerning  the  jus- 
tice of  the  people  of  Shasta  in  1851.  —  Here,  at  least, 
there  was  no  trace  of  the  sentimental  or  the  jocular. 

Our  next  case  is  less  gloomy  than  Easterbrook's,  and 
takes  place  later,  and  in  a  less  severely  primitive  locality. 
It  is  a  case  of  larceny  this  time.  In  the  "  San  Fran- 
cisco Herald  "  of  March  22,  1852,  I  find  a  report,  ap- 
parently officially  furnished  by  mail  to  this  and  other 
papers,  of  a  miners'  meeting  at  Johnson's  Bar,  where 
one  "  Dr.  Bardt,"  whose  title  is  very  considerately 
preserved  throughout  the  report,  was  arraigned  for 
theft.i 

"  The  meeting  having  been  called  to  order,  Mr.  Camp- 
bell was  appointed  chairman,  and  Cyrus  Hurd,  Jr.,  sec- 
retary. 

1  The  corned}'  of  this  scene,  be  it  noticed,  lies  not  in  the  conscious 
behavior  of  the  miners,  who  were  as  business-like  and  merciless  as 
the  judges  of  Easterbrook,  but  in  our  point  of  view  as  spectators. 


334  CALIFORNIA. 

"  On  motion,  it  was  resolved,  that  Dr.  A.  Bardt  be 
whipped  for  the  said  thefts. 

"  On  motion,  it  was  resolved  that  Dr.  Bardt  should 
receive  thii'ty-nine  lashes  on  the  bare  back  and  leave 
the  mines  in  three  days. 

"  It  was  moved  and  seconded  that  Dr.  Bardt  should 
be  cropped.  The  motion,  on  being  put,  was  negatived 
unanimously. 

"  On  motion,  it  was  resolved  that  Dr.  Bardt  be  whipped 
by  the  constable,  Mr.  Thompson,  with  a  rope. 

"  On  motion,  it  was  resolved  that  the  constable  should 
proceed  immediately  to  the  discharge  of  his  duty. 

"  On  motion  it  was  resolved  that  the  secretary  be  re- 
quested to  furnish  a  copy  of  the  proceedings  to  be  pub- 
lished in  the  California  papers. 

"  The  punishment  having  been  inflicted,  it  was,  on 
motion,  resolved  that  the  meeting  do  adjourn  sine  die.'* 

Since  the  thefts  are  spoken  of  as  the  "  said  thefts," 
one  is  disposed  to  compare  this  case  to  the  above  cited 
Coloma  case  of  "Jones  and  partners,"  and  to  suppose 
that  "  Dr.  Bardt "  had  tried  to  set  a  previous  verdict  at 
naught. 

/Severe,  unsentimental,  and  in  the  sharpest  contrast 
to  their  daily  joviality,  was  the  mood  of  the  lynching 
miners  as  we  have  so  far  examined  it.  The  cause  of 
this  contrast  we  have  also  begun  to  see.  The  miners' 
justice,  however,  even  where  the  evidence  was  clear, 
and  the  trial  orderly,  was  often  not  merely  severe,  but 
atrociously  cruel.  /In  the  "  Transcript "  for  January  30, 
1851,  one  finds  the  record  of  a  trial  at  Mississippi  Bar, 
where  a  thief,  "  in  consideration  of  his  youth,"  was  not 
hanged,  but  was  given  one  hundred  and  fifty  lashes,  and 
a  brand   "  R "  on  the  left  arm,  after  having  his  head 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  ORDER.  335 

shaved  on  one  side.  One  is  surprised  to  find  how  people 
who  at  home,  in  those  philanthropic  days,  would  very- 
likely  have  been  under  the  sway  of  sentimentalists,  and 
would  have  shuddered  at  severe  penalties  of  all  sorts, 
now  behaved  when  they  were  away  from  home.  For 
the  change  their  own  sense  of  irresponsibility  is  largely 
to  blame,  the  same  sense  of  irresponsibility  that  led  them 
to  tolerate  the  causes  which  led  to  these  social  disasters. 
,/The  two  punishments,  flogging  and  death,  as  penal- 
ties for  theft,  have  invited  much  comment^rom  critics 
of  early  California  mining  life.  It  is  too  obvious  to  need 
much  special  discussion  here,  thati;  to  flog  and  banish  a 
thief  from  a  given  camp  was  to  do  worse  than  nothing/,  ■ 
for  the  good  order  of  the  mines  at  large.  The  thief 
wenj;  out  into  the  mountains  a  very  poor,  desperate,  and 
revengeful  man.  He  had,  meanwhile,  all  the  vague 
chances  ahead  that  were  offered  to  him  by  a  possible 
entrance  as  a  stranger  into  some  new  camp.  Hope  in 
any  cheerful  sense  these  chances  would  hardly  give  him  ; 
but,  in  his  despair,  they  would  promise  him  that,  in  the , 
new  place,  he  might  possibly  avenge,  on  people  who  did 
not  know  him,  the  blows  that  he  had  suffered  from  those 
who  had  found  him  out.  Or  again,  the  sight  of  the 
lonely  mountain  roads  might  offer  to  his  despair  the 
proper  suggestion  for  a  new  life  of  crime.  In  any  case, 
the  camp  that  banished  him  had  only,  as  Capron's  in- 
formants put  it,^  "  let  loose  a  fiend."  And  the  friendly 
interchange  of  their  respective  fiends  among  the  various 
camps  was  obviously  the  whole  outcome  of  this  prevail- 
ing system  of  flogging  and  banishment. 

Those  miners  who  chose  to  hang  the  notorious  thieves 
of  their  camps  were  therefore,  so  far  as  the  direct  effec- 
1  Capron's  History,  toe.  cit. 


336  CALIFORNIA. 

tiveness  of  their  work  was  concerned,  wiser,  since  they 
got  rid  of  at  least  one  rogue.  A  dead  thief  steals  no 
more  ;  and  as  we  have  above  shown,  this  book  has  no 
sort  of  sentimentalism  to  expend  over  dead  thieves, 
although,  for  other  reasons,  this  plan  of  lynching  thieves 
was  a  bad  one.  Where^the  miners'  courts  were  orderly, 
careful,  sensible  in  examining  evidence,  and  certain  of 
the  habitual  and  intolerable  roguery  of  the  thief  before 
them,  it  was  far  better,  under  the  circumstances,  to  hang 
than  to  flog  and  banish  him,  and  less  cruel,  also. '  Never- 
theless,^he  real  objection  to  the  habitual  hanging  of  the 
thieves  by  the  people,  as  practiced  in  those  days,  is  none 
the  less  cogent.>  We  have  already  suggested  where  this 
true  objection  lay.  The  thief  himself,  as  an  individual, 
was  indeed  often  enough  a  worthless  hound,  and  deserved 
all  that  he  got.  As  against  the  interests  of  society  at 
large,  his  interests  were  naught.  But  it  was  precisely 
the  interest  of  society  that  was  in  the  long  run  most  in- 
jured by  the  habit  of  hanging  the  thieves  in  these  rude, 
irregular  miners'  courts.  For  the  popular  conscience 
was  debased  by  the  physical  brutality  of  the  business, 
and  so  soon  as  the  lynching  habit  was  once  established, 
this  conscience  was  put  to  sleep  by  a  false  self-confi- 
dence, engendered  of  the  ease  wherewith  justice  seemed 
in  such  cases  to  be  vindicated.  And  society,  which,  with 
all  its  fancied  honesty,  was,  in  its  own  way,  an  obvious 
accomplice  of  the  thief  himself,  was  prevented  for  a  while 
from  appreciating  the  enormity  of  its  offenses.  For  it 
was  society  that  encouraged  these  rogues,  and  that,  with 
every  month,  made  them  worse  rogues  than  ever.  By 
its  careless  spirit,  by  its  patronage  of  gambling  saloons, 
by  its  jolly  toleration  of  all  private  quarrels  that  did 
not  go  so  far  as  once  for  all  to  enrage  the  public,  by  its 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  ORDER.  337 

willful  determination  to  spend  no  time  on  self-discipline, 
and  no  money  on  so  costly  a  thing  as  a  stable  public 
order,  and,  above  all,  by  its  persistently  wicked  neglect 
to  choose  good  public  officers,  the  mining  society  made 
itself  the  friend  and  upholder  of  the  very  roguery  that 
it  flogged  and  hanged.  Its  habitual  good-humor  insured 
the  necessity  of  occasional  fury  and  brutality.  And,  so 
long  as  it  flogged  and  hanged  in  this  rude  popular  way, 
it  could  not  be  convinced  of  its  errors,  but  ever  and  anon, 
after  one  of  these  popular  outbursts  of  vengeance,  it 
raised  its  blood-stained  hands  in  holy  horror  at  crime, 
lamenting  the  fate  that  would  doubtless  force  it  still  in 
future  to  continue  its  old  business  of  encouraging  this 
bloodshed.  All  this  criticism  of  mine  may  be  merely 
moral  commonplace  ;  but  I  am  sure  that  I  should  never 
fill  these  pages  with  such  platitudes,  were  it  not  for  the 
outrageous  effrontery  with  which  the  average  mining 
community  of  those  days  used  to  defend  itself,  in  the 
fashion  cited  above.  The  single  act  was  indeed  often  in 
itself  defensible.  It  was  the  habit  of  risking  such  emer- 
gencies that  was  intolerable. 

So  far  did  this  trust  in  hanging  as  a  cure  for  theft  go, 
that  in  the  second  legislature,  that  of  1851,  an  act  was 
passed  making  hanging  for  grand  larceny  a  penalty  to 
be  thenceforth  regularly  imposed  at  the  pleasure  of  the 
convicting  jury.^  So  easy  is  it  for  men  to  sanction  their 
blunders  by  the  help  of  a  little  printers'  ink,  used  for 
the  publication  of  a  statute. 

1  I  am  somewhat  perplexed  to  find  Mr.  Shinn,  Mining  Camps,  p. 
228,  note,  referring  this  law  to  the  first  year  of  the  life  of  the  State, 
and  to  the  legislature  of  1850.  The  matter  is  one  of  plain  record, 
and  is  of  some  importance,  because  it  shows  that  the  law  did  not  first 
encourage  the  lynchers,  but  that  only  after  the  extravagances  of  pop- 
ular justice  had  for  some  time  flourished,  it  was  found  possible  to  load 
22 


338  CALIFORNIA. 

The  familiar  reply  of  the  pioneers  to  all  these  criti- 
cisms is,  that  if  the  miners'  justice  reformed  nobody,  it  at 
least  effectually  intimidated  every  rascal.  And  much 
nonsense  has  been  repeated  by  writers  on  those  early 
days  concerning  the  terrible  magnitude  and  swiftness, 
the  certainty,  the  simplicity,  and  the  consequent  deter- 
ring effect  of  lynch  law.  But  one  who  repeats  this  non- 
sense forgets  first  of  all  that  axiom  of  criminal  justice 
according  to  which  the  magnitude  and  the  frightfulness 
of  a  penalty  are  of  but  the  smallest  deterring  power  in 
comparison  with  the  certainty  of  the  penalty ;  and  such 
an  one  also  forgets  that  mob  law  can  never  be  certain. 
While  a  vigilance  committee  in  the  mines  was  in  full 
course  of  vengeance,  crime  would  indeed  be  terrified. 
But  at  the  very  instant  the  committee  relaxed  its  vigi- 
lance, the  carelessly  open  tents,  the  gold,  the  scattered 
wanderers  prospecting  in  the  hills,  or  finding  their  way 
along  the  roads,  all  suggested  to  the  thief  his  old 
chances.  And  what  had  he,  after  all,  to  fear  ?  No 
vigilant  police,  no  conscientious  public  spirit,  no  strong 
jails.  Only  a  momentary  and  terrible  outburst  of  pop- 
ular justice  was,  at  the  worst,  to  be  dreaded.  If  he 
escaped  that,  by  flight,  or  by  even  temporary  conceal- 

the  statute  book  with  an  entirely  useless  and  demoralizing  penaltj', 
useless  because  its  uncertainty  made  it  of  no  deterring  power,  and 
demoralizing  because  all  useless  and  obsolete  penalties  are  mere 
opportunities  for  whimsical  popular  vengeance,  not  expressions  of 
the  dignity  of  the  social  order.  The  best  possible  comment  on  this  law 
is  a  case  where  a  thief  was  tried  under  it  at  Monterey,  as  reported  in 
the  San  Francisco  Herald  for  June  26,  1852.  The  jurj-  brought  in 
a  verdict  finding  the  prisoner  guilty  as  charged,  sentencing  him  to 
death,  hut  recommendinc/  him  to  the  mercy  of  the  court.  The  court 
was  puzzled;  but  as  the  prisoner  was  a  native  Californian,  the  jury 
got  the  benefit  of  the  doubt,  and  the  prisoner  was  formally  sentenced 
to  death. 


THE   STRUGGLE  FOR   ORDER.  339 


ment  of  his  crime,  there  would  be  no  detectives  to  hunt 
him  down,  no  permanently  accessible  evidence  to  be 
produced  against  him.  No  witness  would  be  public- 
spirited  enough  to  wait  an  hour  longer  than  might  be 
convenient  for  a  chance  to  testify.  In  a  few  weeks  the 
witnesses  who  could  hurt  him  might  be  scattered  far 
away,  and  the  whole  thing  forgotten.  Under  such  cir- 
cumstances, could  the  bare  chance  of  even  one  hundred 
and  fifty  lashes  with  a  branding,  or  even  the  possibility 
of  being  hanged,  deter  a  rogue  from  his  work?  The 
analogy  of  the  case  of  England  at  the  close  of  the  last 
century,  with  the  ineffectiveness  of  the  capriciously  ex- 
ecuted death  penalty  as  there  ordained  for  lesser  of- 
fenses, at  once  suggests  itself.  Criminals,  like  savages, 
scatter  to  their  hiding-places  after  any  sudden  defeat ; 
but  they  are  not  thereby  civilized,  and  constant  vigilance 
is  needed  as  much  after  their  defeat  as  before.  And 
when  the  vigilance  committees  scattered  the  rogues  of  a 
given  camp,  the  result  was  very  like  the  one  that  takes 
place  when  a  lonesome  wanderer  in  Californian  wilder- 
nesses scatters  the  coyotes  that  have  gathered  at  night 
around  his  camp-fire.  The  coyote  loves  to  hold  parlia- 
ment, in  such  a  case,  just  beyond  the  circles  of  the  fire- 
light, for  the  benefit  of  the  poor  wretch  who,  rolled  up 
in  his  blankets,  is  trying  to  rest  from  his  labors  beside 
his  fire.  With  unearthly  noises  the  vile  beasts  drive 
away  from  him  sleep,  for  a  prostrate  and  almost  motion- 
less man,  all  alone,  the  coyote  regards  as  a  deeply  ad- 
mirable object.  And  the  man  occasionally  starts  up, 
perchance,  and  dashes  out  into  the  dark  with  ineffective 
ravings,  while  the  whole  pack  vanish  yelping  in  the 
night.  But,  alas,  when  he  returns  to  his  fire  and  lies 
down,  the  gleaming  eyes  are  soon  again  near,  and  he 


3-10  CALIFORNIA. 

has  nothing  to  do  hut  to  curse  away  the  hours  until 
dawn,  helpless  against  his  tormentors  as  Gulliver  bound 
in  Lilliput.  As  any  one  can  see  by  a  chronological  study 
of  the  newspapers  of  1851  and  1852,  just  such  was  the 
experience  of  many  camps  with  their  rogues.  Of  un- 
hanged rogues  a  community  rids  itself  only  by  ceasing 
to  nourish  them ;  'while,  if  you  nourish  rogues,  you  can- 
not hope  to  hang  them  all,  nor  yet  to  hang  the  most 
of  them.-^ 

A  chronological  study  of  the  newspaper  files,  I  say, 
proves  this  inefficacy  of  mere  lynching,  in  so  far  as  such 
a  study  can  of  itself  make  any  social  tendency  clear. 
In  the  spring  of  1851,  in  fact,  and  also  far  into  the  sum- 
mer of  that  year,  one  finds  much  lynching  going  on. 
That  autumn  there  seems  indeed  to  be  once  more  gen- 
eral peace  and  good  order  in  the  mines ;  but  for  this  not 

1  The  reader  should  compare  here  again  Mr.  Sh Inn's  discussion  of 
our  whole  topic,  and  the  instances  that  he  cites.  He  has  often  failed 
to  give  his  sources,  and  he  seems  to  me  one-sided  in  the  choice  of 
facts ;  but  his  is  the  only  effort  published  before  the  present  one  to 
discuss  systematically  the  whole  subject  of  popular  justice  in  Cali- 
fornia, and  his  view  is  much  more  favorable  than  mine.  For  further 
instances  of  moderately  orderly  popular  procedure  in  the  mines,  I 
must  content  myself  here  with  referring  to  the  San  Francisco  Alia  of 
1851  (Harvard  College  Library  file),  in  the  numbers  for  May  21 
(where  a  horse-thief  at  Nevada  was  allowed  by  the  "  crowd  "  to  choose, 
himself,  who  should  give  him  the  thirty-nine  lashes);  July  11  (where 
a  Sonora  correspondent  describes  the  caution  with  which  a  vigilance 
committee  proceeded  in  trying  a  Mexican  horse-thief,  who  was  given 
a  whole  day  in  which  to  prepare  his  case  and  produce  his  witnesses, 
and  who  was  then  convicted  and  flogged,  a  collection  being  afterwards 
taken  up  for  his  benefit);  and  October  22  (where  the  passengers  on  a 
Marj'sville  steamboat  tried  and  convicted  in  regular  miners'  form 
one  of  their  number  who  had  committed  a  theft  on  board,  and  sen- 
tenced him  to  pay  a  large  fine  in  gold  dust  to  a  sick  and  destitute  man 
who  chanced  also  to  be  on  board).  All  these  incidents  are  character- 
istic. 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR   ORDER.  341 

merely  past  popular  violence  must  be  held  responsible, 
but  many  other  influences  as  well.  The  dry  season 
continued  until  late,  and  vast  river-bed  operations,  great 
tunnels,  flumes,  dams,  ditches,  were  occupying  men's  at- 
tention. Labor  was  organized  as  never  before  in  the 
mines.  The  vested  interests  of  the  various  communi 
ties  were  great  and  increasing  ;  the  yield  was  large,  but 
the  responsibility  serious.  At  such  a  moment  the  com- 
munity was  on  its  good  behavior.  Moreover  (and  this 
is  a  deeply  significant  fact),  the  violence  of  the  spring 
and  summer  had  reacted  on  the  honest  men  even  more 
than  on  thieves.  The  need  of  vindicating  lynching,  a 
need  that  these  people  almost  always  felt,  showed  that 
they  were  capable  of  being  shocked  by  their  own  deeds 
of  popular  vengeance.  For,  after  all,  these  honest  men 
had  very  often  been  well  brought  up  at  home,  and  were 
still  new  to  bloodshed.  In  their  lives  the  lynching  af- 
fairs were,  despite  their  recent  frequency,  stiU  terrible 
and  wholly  exceptional  events.  And  so  they  may  be 
fairly  presumed  to  have  taken,  for  a  while  at  least,  the 
ordinary  precautions  of  decent  citizens.  They  did  not 
so  easily  tolerate  minor  disorders,  nor  by  their  good- 
tiumor  encourage  ruffians  to  live  in  their  camps.  Prob- 
ably they  gambled  less  frequently  themselves,  drank 
less,  acted  more  soberly.  To  these  causes,  quite  as  much 
as  to  the  temporary  fright  of  the  rascals,  must  we  at- 
tribute the  comparative  good  order  of  that  autumn.  Yet 
the  rascals  were  neither  dead  nor  gone  from  the  State, 
nor  reformed,  though  many  of  them  had  left  the  mines. 
Just  after  two  horse-thieves  had  been  sentenced  to  death 
under  the  new  law  at  Stockton,  the  "  Stockton  Journal " 
of  about  October  25,  1851,^  "  again  complains,"  as  the 
"  1  Quoted  in  the  San  Francisco  Alta  for  October  27. 


342  CALIFORNIA. 

"  Alta "  says,  "  of  the  increase  of  crime  and  rowdyism 
at  that  place."  The  complaint  asserts  that  disorder 
prevails  to  a  lamentable  extent  in  Stockton,  that  "  every 
day  is  marked  with  some  scene  of  violence ;  and  the 
night  becomes  frightful,  from  the  hideous  iniquities  per- 
petrated under  the  shadow  of  its  obscurity."  "All 
quiet,"  continues  the  "  Stockton  Journal,"  "  is  banished 
from  the  place,  for  no  citizen  feels  safe,  unless  he  is 
armed  for  any  emergency.  Might  is  the  only  protec- 
tion a  man  can  claim  in  these  perilous  times."  Now 
these  words  are  a  trifle  passionate  and  rhetorical ;  but 
they  have  no  doubt  a  very  real  foundation.  Some  of 
the  banished  rogues  had  gone  to  Stockton,  although  that 
city  had  not  been  unaffected  by  the  general  popular 
struggle  for  order  in  the  summer  of  1851.  These 
wretches  had  found  the  moment  favorable  in  that  city, 
and  the  sentence  of  death  just  legally  passed  on  the 
two  horse-thieves  had  not  awed  them  into  submission. 
Yet  this  was  in  the  comparatively  peaceful  closing  sea- 
son of  the  great  year  of  popular  justice,  which  was  in- 
deed a  valuable  year,  yet  not,  in  general,  because  of  its 
violence,  but  because  of  its  organization  of  labor. 

To  see  the  utter  transiency  of  the  effects  of  brute 
violence,  as  a  suppressor  of  crime,  we  must,  however 
look  onwards  to  the  newspapers  of  1852.  Surely,  if 
mere  warning  by  frequent  lynchings  were  enough,  the 
warning  of  1851,  with  the  constant  readiness  of  the 
people  to  follow  it  up,  on  occasion,  by  new  lynchings, 
ought  to  have  produced  a  reign  of  peace  in  the  mines, 
lasting  longer  than  through  the  autumn  and  winter  fol- 
lowing. But  consider  the  facts.  We  have  already  seen 
how,  in  the  spring  of  1852,  things  went  on  at  Moque- 
/umne  Hill.     I  have  before  me  in  a  file  a  number  of 


^e 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  ORDER.  343 


e  steamer  "  Alta "  of  June  15,  1852.  This  number 
has  an  astonishing  catalogue  of  crimes,  reported  from 
the  mining  regions  both  north  and  south,  together  with 
lynchings;  and  the  editor  declares  that,  were  he  to 
give  all  the  particulars  to  be  gathered  from  his  mining 
exchanges  of  one  day,  he  could  fill  a  number  of  his  own 
daily  edition.  And  then  he  adds  a  significant  quota- 
tion from  an  interior  paper  of  the  southern  mines. 
"  The  *  Calaveras  Chronicle,'  "  he  says,  "  complains  of 
the  alarming  increase  of  crime  in  that  section  within 
the  past  few  weeks.  The  grand  jury  have  found  ten 
indictments.  '  Summary  examples  '  (^.  e.,  lynching  ex- 
amples), says  the  'Chronicle,'  'for  capital  and  minor 
offenses  have  been  frequently  made ;  but  the  canaille 
would  scarcely  lose  sight  of  the  scaffold,  the  tremor 
which  a  malefactor  in  the  agony  of  death  cast  through 
their  frame  would  scarcely  have  ceased,  until  they 
caused  the  public  ear  again  to  be  greeted  with  intelli- 
gence of  more  outrages,  more  robberies,  more  assassi- 
nations." As  for  the  state  of  the  mining  public  in  that 
part  of  the  country  at  the  moment,  it  appears,  from  sev- 
eral items  in  that  number  of  the  steamer  "  Alta,"  that 
a  "  Mexican  "  at  Jackson,  having  been  accused,  without 
any  evidence  of  which  an  intelligible  account  can  be 
given,  of  being  the  murderer  of  two  Frenchmen  who  had 
been  slain  in  their  tents  near  there,  was  brought  before 
a  drunken  justice  of  the  peace,  and  was  by  him  com- 
mitted to  prison ;  and  that  the  "  crowd "  thereupon, 
without  giving  him  a  fair  chance  to  be  heard  further  in 
his  own  defense,  took  him  from  jail  and  hanged  him, 
after  a  desperate  struggle,  in  the  presence  of  his  plead- 
ing mother  and  sisters.  Now  this  affair,  which  is  very 
confusedly  reported,  and  which,  of  course,  may  have 


344  CALIFORNIA. 

been  distorted  in  the  telling,  suflficiently  indicates,  at  aU 
events,  that  the  lynching  habit  was  as  demoralizing  as  it 
was  useless.^ 


^ 


Vn.    A  TYPICAL   HISTORY   OF  A   MINING   CAMP  IN 
1851-52. 

More  orderly  expressions  of  popular  justice,  of  the 
sort  heretofore  frequently  recorded,  were  impossible,  as 
we  now  see,  without  results  that  must  be  far  worse  than 
mere  mistakes.  A  mining  town  was  not  standing  still. 
It  was  a  growing  or  else  a  decaying  organism.  In  al- 
ternating between  universal  optimistic  good-humor  on 
the  one  hand,  and  grim  vengeance  upon  wrong-doers  on 
the  other,  it  was,  however,  either  stunting  its  true 
growth,  or  dooming  itself  to  decay  and  corruption.. 
Fortune  has  preserved  to  us  from  the  pen  of  a  very  in- 
telligent woman,  who  writes  under  an  assumed  name, 
a  marvelously  skillful  and  undoubtedly  truthful  history 
of  a  mining  community  during  a  brief  period,  first  of 
cheerful  prosperity,  and  then  of  decay  and  disorder. 
The  wife  of  a  physician,  and  herself  a  well-educated 
New  England  woman,  "  Dame  Shirley,"  as  she  chooses 
to  call  herself,  was  the  right  kind  of  witness  to  describe 
for  us  the  social  life  of  a  mining  camp  from  actual  ex- 
perience. This  she  did  in  the  form  of  letters  written 
on  the  spot  to  her  own  sister,*  and  collected  for  puhlica- 

1  I  have  not  wished  to  burden  these  pages  with  a  complete  list  of  the 
very  numerous  cases  of  lynching  that  1  have  collected  from  the  con-, 
temporary  newspaper  files.  The  foregoing  cases,  as  far  as  they  go, 
are  to  my  mind  typical,  and  I  believe  my  choice  to  be  a  fair  one.  At 
all  events  such  directly  verifiable  data  have  far  more  worth  than  the 
confused  memory  of  the  pioneers  before  referred  to. 

2  These  Shirley  Letters,  found  all  through  the  numbers  of  Ewer's 
Pioneer  ([published  at  San  Franciaco  in  1864-66),  have  already  been 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  ORDER.  346 

tion  some  two  or  three  years  later.  Once  for  all,  allow- 
ing for  the  artistic  defects  inevitable  in  a  disconnected 
series  of  private  letters,  these  "  Shirley  "  letters  form 
the  best  account  of  an  early  mining  camp  that  is  known 
to  me.  For  our  real  insight  into  the  mining  life  as  it 
was,  they  are,  of  course,  infinitely  more  helpful  to  us 
than  the  perverse  romanticism  of  a  thousand  such  tales 
as  Mr.  Bret  Harte's,  tales  that,  as  the  world  knows, 
were  not  the  result  of  any  personal  experience  of  really 
primitive  conditions. 

"  Shirley "  entered  the  mines  with  her  husband  in 
1851,  and  passed  the  following  winter,  and  the  summer 
of  1852,  at  Rich  Bar  and  Indian  Bar  successively,  both 
of  them  busy  camps,  near  together,  on  the  North  Fork 
of  the  Feather  River.  The  climate  agreed  with  her 
very  well,  and  on  the  whole  she  seems  to  have  endured 
the  hardships  of  the  life  most  cheerfully. 

Rich  Bar  ^  was,  in  September,  1851,  when  she  first 
saw  it,  a  town  of  one  street,  "  thickly  planted  with  about 
forty  tenements  ;  "  tents,  rag  and  wooden  houses,  plank 
hovels,  log  cabins.  One  hotel  there  was  in  it,  the 
"  Empire."     Rich  Bar  had  had,  in  its  early  days,  a  great 

once  cited.  Of  their  authenticity  we  are  assured  by  the  editor.  The 
internal  evidence  is  to  the  same  effect.  "  Dame  Shirley's  "  interest  is 
not  at  all  our  particular  one  here;  and  she  is  quite  unconscious  of  the 
far-reaching  moral  and  social  significance  of  much  that  she  describes. 
Many  of  the  incidents  introduced  are  such  as  imagination  could  of 
itself  never  suggest,  in  such  an  order  and  connection.  There  is  no 
mark  of  any  conscious  seeking  for  dramatic  effect.  The  moods  that 
the  writer  expresses  indicate  no  remote  purpose,  but  are  the  simple 
embodiment  of  the  thoughts  of  a  sensitive  mind,  interested  deeply  in 
the  wealth  of  new  experiences.  The  letters  are  charmingly  unsenti- 
mental ;  the  style  is  sometimes  a  little  stiff  and  provincial,  but  is  on 
ihe  whole  very  readable.  The  real  name  of  the  author,  accordiug  to 
'Poole's  Index,  is  Mrs.  L.  A.  C.  Clapp. 
1  Pioneer,  vol.  i.  p.  221. 


346  CALIFORNIA. 

reputation  for  its  wealth,  insomuch  that  during  its  first 
summer,  it  had  suddenly  made  wealthy,  then  converted 
into  drunken  gamblers,  and  so  utterly  ruined,  several 
hundred  miners,  all  by  giving  them  occasional  returns 
of  some  hundreds  of  dollars  to  the  panful.  It  had  now 
entered  into  a  second  stage  of  more  modestly  prosperous 
and  more  steadily  laborious  life  ;  it  jvas  a  very  orderly 
place,  and  was  inhabited  partly  by  American,  partly  by 
foreign  miners.  Some  of  the  latter  were  South  Ameri- 
cans. "  Shirley  "  on  her  arrival  found  herself  one  of 
five  women  on  the  bar ;  and  was  of  course  very  pleas- 
antly and  respectfully  treated  by  those  miners  whom 
she  had  occasion  to  know.^ 

In  the  "  Empire,"  the  only  two-story  building  in 
town,  built  originally  as  a  gamblers'  palace,  but,  by 
reason  of  the  temporary  industry  and  sobriety  of  the 
Bar,  now  converted  into  a  very  quiet  hotel,  "  Shirley  " 
found  temporary  lodgings.  The  hotel  office  was  "  fitted 
up  with  that  eternal  crimson  calico,  which  flushes  the 
whole  social  life  of  the  *  Golden  State '  with  its  ever- 
lasting red."  ^  In  this  room  there  was  a  bar,  and  a 
shop  of  miners'  clothing  and  groceries.     The  "  parlor  " 

1  The  popular  stories  of  absurd  displays  of  sentimentality  by  early 
miners  who  chanced  to  be  reminded  of  home  through  the  sight  of  a 
woman  or  of  a  child  never  find  much  corroboration  from  the  state- 
ments of  women  who  were  actually  in  the  mines  at  the  time.  Most 
women  were  of  course  uncommonly  well  treated  b}'  the  whole  commu- 
nitj',  and  any  man's  services  would  have  been  instantly  and  gladly 
at  their  disposal  in  case  of  any  need.  They  were  met  with  even  effu- 
sive politeness  ;  but  miners  were  not  such  fools  as  the  story-tellers  like 
to  make  them.  "  Shirley,"  soon  after  her  arrival,  was  greeted  in  her 
husband's  office  by  one  of  his  friends,  who  insisted  on  making  her 
sip  champagne  on  the  spot  at  this  friend's  own  expense,  in  honor  of 
his  first  sight  of  a  woman  for  two  years.  But  Shirley  did  not  hear 
that  any  one  ever  danced  about  a  woman's  cast-off  bonnet  or  petticoat, 

2  Pioneer,  vol.  i.  p.  174. 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR   ORDER.  347 

was  behind  this  room,  on  the  first  floor :  a  room  straw- 
carpeted,  and  furnished  with  a  big  mirror,  a  red-seated 
"  sofa,  fourteen  feet  long,"  a  "  round  table  with  a  green 
cloth,  red  calico  curtains,  a  cooking-stove,  a  rocking- 
chair,  and  a  woman  and  a  baby,  the  latter  wearing 
a  scarlet  frock  to  match  the  sofa  and  curtains."  Up- 
stairs were  several  bedrooms,  with  immense,  heavy  bed- 
steads, warped  and  uneven  floors,  purple  calico  linings 
on  the  walls,  and  red  calico  curtains.  The  whole  house 
was  very  roughly  and  awkwardly  pieced  together  by  a 
careless  carpenter,  and  cost  its  builders  eight  thousand 
dollars.  It  was  the  great  pride  and  ornament  of  the 
camp. 

The  landlord  was  a  Western  farmer,  his  wife  yellow- 
complexioned  and  care-worn.  The  baby,  six  months 
old,  kicked  and  cried  in  a  champagne-basket  cradle. 
The  woman  cooked  for  all  the  boarders  herself.  Of  the 
four  women  who  besides  "  Shirley  "  were  in  town,  an- 
other kept  with  her  husband  the  "  Miners'  Home  "  and 
"  tended  bar."  Within  about  a  week  after  ''  Shirley  '* 
came,  a  third  of  the  four,  whom  she  had  not  met,  died, 
and  ''  Shirley  "  attended  the  funeral,^  which  took  place 
from  a  log  cabin.  This  dwelling  was  windowless,  but 
with  one  large  opening  in  the  wall  to  admit  light.  The 
funeral  scene  was  characteristic  of  the  social  condition  of 
the  moment.  Everything  about  the  place  was  "  exceed- 
ingly clean  and  neat  "  for  the  occasion.  "  On  a  board, 
supported  by  two  butter-tubs,  was  extended  the  body  of 
the  dead  woman,  covered  with  a  sheet ;  by  its  side 
stood  the  coffin  of  unstained  pine,  lined  with  white  cam- 
bric. .  .  .  The  husband  held  in  his  arms  a  sickly  babe 
ten  months  old,  which  was  moaning  piteously  for  its 
1  Fioneer^  vol.  i.  p.  347. 


848  CALIFORNIA. 

mother.  The  other  child,  a  handsome,  bold-looking 
little  girl,  six  years  of  age,  was  running  gayly  around 
the  room,  perfectly  unconscious  of  her  bereavement." 
Every  few  moments  she  would  "  run  up  to  her  dead 
mother,  and  peep  laughingly  under  the  handkerchief." 
*'  It  was  evident  that  her  baby-toilet  had  been  made  by 
men  ;  she  had  on  a  new  calico  dress,  which,  having  no 
tucks  in  it,  trailed  to  the  floor,"  giving  her  a  "  dwarfs 
womanly  appearance."  After  a  long  and  wandering 
impromptu  prayer  by  somebody,  a  prayer  which  "  Shir- 
ley "  found  disagreeable  (since  she  herself  was  a  church- 
woman,  and  missed  the  burial  service),  the  procession, 
containing  twenty  men  and  three  women,  set  out  for  the 
hill-side  graveyard,  "  a  dark  cloth  cover,  borrowed  from 
a  neighboring  monte  table,"  being  "  flung  over  the  cof- 
fin," as  a  pall.  It  was  the  best  pall  Rich  Bar  could 
have  furnished  for  anybody.  The  coffin-lid  was  nailed 
down,  as  there  were  no  screws,  the  sharp  hammer  blows 
on  the  hollow  coffin  shocking  the  solemn  little  assembly 
with  their  uncanny  noise.  "  Shirley  "  tried,  a  few  days 
later,  to  amuse  the  little  motherless  girl,  who  was  then 
about  to  leave  the  camp  with  her  father  for  Marysville, 
and  offered  her  a  few  playthings.  The  little  one  chose 
with  ecstatic  delight  some  tiny  scent-bottles,  which  she 
called  "  baby-decanters." 

Among  the  miners,  perfect  good-humor  prevailed  on 
the  Bar.  On  the  anniversary  of  Chilian  independence, 
Yankee  miners  walked  fraternally  in  procession  with 
the  Chilians,  every  member  of  the  procession  "  intensely 
drunk,"  ^  and  yet  there  seems  to  have  been  no  quarrel- 
ing. The  people  on  the  Bar  used  profane  language  to 
an  unpleasant  extent  on  the  commonest  occasions ;  buf 
1  Pioneer^  vol.  i.  p.  274. 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  ORDER.  349 

they  were  well-meaning  about  it,  and  called  it  only  a 
"  slip  of  the  tongue."  "  Shirley,"  as  woman  of  cultiva- 
tion and  curiosity,  took  a  friendly  interest  in  their  less 
disagreeable  manners  and  customs,  and  especially  in  their 
rich,  and  to  her  at  that  moment  very  novel,  slang.  She 
recorded  with  amusement  how  they  ended  a  discussion 
upon  business  questions  with :  "  Talk  enough  when 
horses  fight,"  or  "  Talk  enough  between  gentlemen ; " 
how  they  assured  themselves  of  one's  sincerity  by  ques- 
tioning :  "  Honest  Injun  ? "  (which  she  spells,  with 
Yankee  primness,  Indian)  ;  and  how  they  would  ask 
one  of  another  :  "  Have  you  a  spare  pick-axe  about 
your  clothes  ?  "  or  say  that  they  "  had  got  the  dead- 
wood  on"  somebody.^  Take  them  for  all. in  all,  they 
seemed  to  her  far  oftener  amusing  than  coarse  or  disa- 
greeable. And  many  of  them  she  plainly  found  delight- 
ful men,  men  of  education  no  doubt,  and  of  good  social 
position  at  home. 

.  Before  October  had  fairly  begun,  she  had  moved 
with  her  husband  to  the  neighboring  Indian  Bar,  where 
he  had  many  personal  friends.  The  scenery  here  was 
wilder ;  but  the  society  was  much  the  same  in  its  busy 
and  peaceful  joviality.  Here  were  some  twenty  tents 
and  cabins  on  the  bar  itself ;  other  houses  were  on  the 
hill,  the  whole  place  evidently  growing  very  fast ;  and 
other  inhabited  bars  were  near.  The  whole  region 
was  full  of  activity ;  dams,  wing-dams,  flumes,  artificial 
ditches,  were  to  be  seen  all  about.  "  Shirley  "  now  be- 
gan to  live  in  her  own  log  cabin,  which  she  found  al- 
ready hung  with  a  gaudy  chintz.  The  one  hotel  of  In- 
dian Bar  was  near  her  cabin,  too  near,  in  fact ;  for  there 
much  drinking,  and  music,  with  dancing  (by  men  with 
1  Pioneer,  vol.  ii-  p.  24. 


850  CALIFORNIA. 

men),  went  on.  "  Shirley  "  found  and  improvised  verj 
amusing  furniture  for  her  dwelling ;  trunks,  claret 
cases,  three-legged  stools,  monte-table  covers,  and  candle- 
boxes,  furnishing  the  materials  for  her  ingenuity.  Ie 
her  little  library  she  had  a  Bible,  a  prayer-book,  Shake- 
speare,  and  Lowell's  "  Fable  for  the  Critics,"  with  twc 
or  three  other  books.  The  negro  cook  of  the  hotel,  whc 
for  some  time  did  her  own  cooking  as  well,  played  finel}) 
on  the  violin  when  he  chose,  and  was  very  courteous 
to  "  Shirley."  She  speaks  of  him  often  with  infinite 
amusement.  Prominent  in  the  society  of  the  Bar  was  a 
trapper,  of  the  old  Fremont  party,  who  told  blood-cur- 
dling tales  of  Indian  fights  ;  another  character  was  a 
learned  Quaker,  who  lectured  at  length  to  "  Shirley  *' 
on  literature,  but  never  liked  to  listen  to  her  on  any  sub- 
ject, and  told  her  as  much  very  frankly.  The  camp  had 
just  become  possessed  also  of  a  justice  of  the  peace,  a 
benevolent  looking  fat  man,  with  a  big  head,  slightly 
bald,  and  a  smooth  fat  face.  He  was  genial  and  sweet 
tempered,  was  commonly  supposed  to  be  incompetent, 
and  had  got  himself  elected  by  keeping  both  the  coming 
election  and  his  candidacy  a  secret,  save  from  his 
friends.  Most  of  the  miners,  when  they  came  to  hear 
of  him  and  of  the  election,  thought  such  an  officer  a  nui- 
sance in  those  diggings,  as  the  camp  could  surely  keep 
order  without  his  help.  But  so  long  as  he  had  nothing 
to  do,  he  was  permitted  to  do  it,  and  to  be  as  great  a 
man  for  his  pains  as  he  liked.  Late  in  October;  one 
case  of  supposed  theft  occurred,  the  trial  taking  place  at 
Rich  Bar,  before  a  miners'  meeting.  The  "  Squire  " 
was  allowed  to  look  on  from  the  platform,  while  the  im- 
provised popular  magistrate,  sitting  by  his  side,  admin' 


f 
THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  ORDER.  351 

istered  justice.  The  thief,  as  "Shirley"  heard,  was 
lightly  flogged,  and  was  then  banished.^ 

Not  until  December,  however,  was  the  general  peace 
broken  further.  But  then  it  was  indeed  broken  by  a 
decidedly  barbarous  case  of  hanging  for  theft.  The 
"  Squire  "  was  powerless  to  affect  the  course  of  events ; 
the  "people"  of  Indian  Bar,  many  of  them  drunken 
and  full  of  disorderly  desire  for  a  frolic,  tried  the  ac- 
cused, whose  guilt  was  certain  enough,  although  his  pre- 
vious character  had  been  fair ;  and,  when  he  had  been 
found  guilty,  the  "  crowd  "  hanged  him  in  a  very  brutal 
fashion.  He  was  himself  drunken  to  the  last  moment. 
The  more  reckless  people  of  the  Bar  were  the  ones  con- 
cerned in  this  affair,  and  all  "  Shirley's  "  own  friends 
disapproved  of  it.^ 

General  demoralization,  however,  set  in  with  winter. 
There  was  little  to  do  on  the  Bar  ;  the  most  of  the  men 
were  young ;  the  confinement  of  the  winter,  on  a  place 
"  about  as  large  as  a  poor  widow's  potato-patch,"  was 
terrible  to  them.  Christmas  evening  saw  the  beginning 
of  a  great  revel  at  the  hotel  near  "  Shirley's  "  log-cabin.* 
Days  had  been  spent  in  preparing  for  it ;  the  bar  of  the 
hotel  had  been  retrimmed  with  red  calico ;  brandy  and 
champagne  in  vast  quantities  had  been  brought  into 
camp  ;  and,  what  was  most  wonderful  of  all,  the  floor 
of  the  hotel  had  been  washed.  An  oyster  and  cham- 
pagne supper,  with  toasts  and  songs,  began  the  revel. 
Shirley  heard  dancing  in  the  hotel  as  she  fell  asleep 
that  night  in  her  cabin ;  and  next  morning,  when  she 
woke,  they  were  still  dancing.*     The  whole  party  now 

1  Op.  cit.,  vol.  ii.  pp.  151,  214.  2  Qp.  cit.,  vol.  il.  p.  351. 

«  Op.  cit.,  vol.  iii.  f.  80. 

*  These  "balls,"  attended  by  men  only,  because  there  were  only 


862  CALIFORNIA, 

kept  themselves  drunken  for  three  days,  growing  con- 
stantly wilder.  They  formed  a  mock  vigilance  committee 
to  catch  and  bring  in  the  few  remaining  sober  men  o\ 
the  camp,  to  try  them,  and  to  condemn  them  to  drink 
some  stated  quantity.  Some  of  the  wildest  revelers 
were  the  most  respected  men  on  the  river.  At  last 
they  all  reached  the  climax  :  as  "  Shirley  "  heard  the 
thing  described,  they  lay  about  in  heaps  on  the  floor  oi 
the  hotel,  howling,  barking,  and  roaring.  Altogether 
*'  Shirley  "  thought  the  letter  describing  this  affair  the 
unpleasantest  of  her  series  so  far.  Strange  to  say,  no 
fights  are  recorded  at  this  time.  But  thenceforth  confu- 
sion seems  to  be  somewhat  noticeable  in  the  social  af- 
fairs of  that  vicinity.  In  March  a  man  at  a  camp  near 
by  was  stabbed  in  the  back  during  a  drunken  frolic, 
and  without  any  sort  of  cause.  Yet  people  took  at  the 
time  no  notice  of  the  affair.^  In  April  a  Mexican  at 
Indian  Bar  asked  an  American  for  some  money  due  the 
former.  The  American  promptly  stabbed  his  creditor  ; 
but  again  nothing  was  done.^  The  Mexicans  were  in 
fact  now  too  numerous  for  comfort  at  Indian  Bar,  since 
Rich  Bar  had  just  expelled  all  foreigners,  who  therefore 
now  came  to  this  place.  The  public  houses,  which  now 
were  noisy  with  gambling,  drinking,  and  fighting,  had 
increased  from  one  to  seven  or  eight,  and  on  Sundays 
they  were  "  truly  horrible."  But  summer  began  with- 
out any  further  great  outbreaks  of  mob  violence.  On 
the  Fourth  of  July,  however,  the  "  gradually  increasing 
state  of  bad  feeling  "  recently  shown  by  our  country- 
men to  attend  them,  were  not  uncommon  in  the  mines.  Borthwick, 
in  his  Three  Years,  has  preserved,  opposite  p.  320,  a  sltefch  of  one  of 
them,  made  on  the  spot,  and  worth  pages  of  stupid  description.  See 
also  his  excellent  sketches,  from  life,  of  gambling-scenes. 
1  Op.  cit.,  vol.  iii,  p.  220.  ^  Loc.  cit.,  p.  366. 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  ORDER.  353 

men  towards  the  foreigners,  culminated,  for  the  mo- 
ment, in  a  general  assault,  the  result  "  of  whiskey  and 
patriotism,"  on  the  Spaniards  near  one  of  the  saloons,  of 
whom  two  or  three  were  badly  hurt.-^  "  Shirley  "  con- 
fesses that,  as  she  learns,  the  people  of  Spanish  race  on 
the  Bar,  many  of  whom  are  "  highly  educated  gentle- 
men,"  are  disposed  to  base  an  ill  opinion  of  our  whole 
nation  on  the  actions  of  the  rougher  men  at  Indian  Bar. 
"  They  think  "  [very  oddly]  "  that  it  is  the  grand  char- 
acteristic of  Columbia's  children  to  be  prejudiced,  opin- 
ionated, selfish,  avaricious,  and  unjust.  It  is  vain  to 
tell  them  that  such  are  not  specimens  of  American  gen- 
tlemen." Our  democratic  airs  as  shown  in  the  mines, 
*'  Shirley  "  thinks,  deceive  them.  They  fancy  that  we 
must  be  what  we  choose  to  seem,  namely,  aU  alike. 
But  the  men  who  really  so  acted  as  so  unfavorably  to 
impress  the  foreign  gentlemen  were,  she  declares,  the 
gamblers  and  rowdies  of  the  camp.  "  The  rest  of  the 
people  are  afraid  of  these  daring,  unprincipled  persons, 
and  when  they  commit  the  most  glaring  injustice  against 
the  Spaniards,  it  is  generally  passed  unnoticed."  "  We 
have  had,"  says  "  Shirley,"  wearily,  "  innumerable 
drunken  fights  during  the  summer,  with  the  usual 
amount  of  broken  heads,  collar  bones,  stabs,  etc."  These 
fights  usually  took  place  on  Sunday  ;  and  not  otherwise 
could  "  Shirley  "  always  have  been  sure  of  remembering 
the  day  of  rest.  Things  were  sadly  changed  from  those 
bright  days  of  her  early  stay  at  the  Bar. 

The  vengeance  of  the  gods,  that  was  thus  gathering 

over  Indian  Bar,  descended  with  a  sudden  stroke  on 

Sunday,  July  11.     "  Shirley  "  had  been  walking  with  a 

party  of  friends  in  the  beautiful   summer  woods;  but 

1  Op.  cit.,  vol.  iv.  p.  24. 


354  CALIFORNIA. 

when  she  returned  the  town  was  in  a  fury.  A  "  majes- 
tic-looking Spaniard  "  had  quarreled  with  an  Irishman 
about  a  Mexican  girl  ("  Shirley  "  for  the  first  time,  I 
think,  thus  showing  a  knowledge  of  the  presence  at  In- 
dian Bar  of  those  women  who  seem,  in  the  bright  and 
orderly  days  of  her  first  arrival,  to  have  been  actually 
unknown  in  the  camp).  The  Mexican,  having  at  last 
stabbed  and  killed  the  other,  fled  to  the  hills  ;  and  the 
Americans  were  rushing  about,  shouting :  "  Down  with 
the  Spaniards  !  "  "  Don't  let  one  of  the  murderous  dev- 
ils remain ! "  and  other  similarly  enlightened  words. 
"  Shirley  "  was  conducted  by  her  husband  for  safety  up 
on  to  the  hill,  and  to  a  house  where  there  lived  a  family 
containing  two  women.  Here  from  above,  gazing  di- 
rectly down  on  to  the  Bar,  she  watched  "  a  sea  of  heads, 
bristling  with  rifles,  guns,  and  clubs."  In  this  vast 
confusion  a  gun  was  accidentally  discharged,  during  a 
scuffle,  and  two  men  were  wounded.  This  recalled  the 
people  to  their  senses,  and  they  forthwith  elected  a  vigi- 
lance committee.  They  were  then  pacified  for  the  day. 
But  the  next  day  the  committee  tried  five  or  six 
Spaniards,  "  supposed  to  have  been  ringleaders  in  the 
drunken  mob  of  Sunday,"  and  sentenced  two  to  be 
flogged,  and  all  to  be  banished,  their  property  "  being 
confiscated  for  the  use  of  the  wounded  persons." 
"Shirley"  was  obliged  to  hear,  from  her  cabin,  the 
flogging  of  the  two  men,  and  found  it,  naturally,  very 
highly  disagreeable.  One  of  the  two  convicted  men,  a 
"  gentlemanly  young  Spaniard,"  begged  in  vain  to  be 
killed  rather  than  whipped,  and  finally  swore  the  most 
awful  vengeance  on  all  Americans  henceforth.  These 
sentences  of  the  committee  were,  after  all,  very  lenient ; 
for  the  mob  had  demanded  the  death  of  the  prisouera 
Thus  began  the  rule  of  the  Committee  of  Vigilance. 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  ORDER.  365 

Within  the  next  week  there  was  a  murder  by  a  ne- 
gro, and  he  was  hanged  for  it  at  Rich  Bar.  Fights 
went  on  more  wildly  than  before.  Yet  another  negro 
is  named,  who  cut  his  own  throat  and  created  much  ex- 
citement thereby,  since  at  first  one  of  his  fellows  was 
accused  of  having  done  the  deed.  As  for  the  state  of 
society,  "  it  has  never  been  so  bad,"  "  Shirley  "  writes, 
two  or  three  weeks  later,  "  as  since  the  appointment  of  a 
committee  of  vigilance."  It  was  now  almost  impossible 
to  sleep.  The  rowdies  paraded  the  streets  all  night,  howl- 
ing, worrying  their  enemies,  and  making  great  bonfires, 
—  all  the  men  of  this  crowd  of  roughs  being  constantly 
drunken.  "  The  poor,  exhausted  miners  .  .  .  grumble 
and  complain,  but  they  —  although  far  outnumbering 
the  rioters  —  are  too  timid  to  resist.  All  say,  '  It  is 
shameful ;  something  ought  to  be  done,'  etc.,  and  in  the 
mean  time  the  rioters  triumph.  You  will  wonder  that 
the  committee  of  vigilance  does  not  interfere.  It  is  said 
that  some  of  that  very  committee  are  the  ringleaders." 
A  duel  took  place  during  this  time  at  a  neighboring  bar. 
"  The  duelists  were  surrounded  by  a  large  crowd,  I  have 
been  told,  foremost  among  which  stood  the  committee 
of  vigilance  !  "  ^ 

—  The  mining  operations  that  summer  were  not  a 
distinguished  success  at  Indian  Bar,  and  in  autumn  there 
was  what  miners  call  a  "  general  stampede  from  those 
diggings."  The  physician  and  his  wife  took  leave  of 
the  mines  not  unwillingly.  "  Shirley's "  health,  to  be 
sure,  had  wonderfully  improved.  In  closing  her  mining 
life  she  notices  that  "  the  few  men  that  have  remained 
on  the  Bar  have  amused  themselves  by  prosecuting  one 
another  right  and  left."     "The    'Squire,'"    she  adds, 

^  For  the  immediately  foregoing,  see  Pioneer^  vol.  iv.  p.  103,  sqq. 


356  CALIFORNIA. 

"comes  out  strong  on  these  occasions."  His  recent 
course  in  these  litigations  "has  been  so  fair,  candid, 
and  sensible,  that  he  has  won  golden  opinions  from  all, 
and  were  it  not  for  his  insufferable  laziness  and  good- 
nature, he  would  have  made  a  good  justice  of  the 
peace."  ^  This  criticism  applies  so  well,  also,  to  all  the 
honest  miners  of  Indian  Bar  and  vicinity  (men  who 
formed  an  undoubted  majority  of  the  community),  that 
we  need  no  better  summary  than  these  words  give  us  of 
the  life  of  that  year  on  the  Bar.  These  native  Ameri- 
cans of  good  character  would  have  had  little  real  trouble 
in  preserving  the  peace  of  the  camp,  had  they  not  chosen, 
one  and  all,  to  show  such  detestable  "  laziness  and  good- 
nature." 

"  Shirley's  "  well-sketched  pictures  have  passed  be- 
fore us,  and  the  series  is  complete  :  easily  secured  peace, 
then  carelessly  criminal  tolerance,  then  brutally  intol- 
erant degeneracy,  and  then  the  final  wretched  dissolu- 
tion. There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  story  is  typical  of 
the  life  of  many  camps.  With  "  Shirley,"  we  rejoice  at 
last  to  leave  to  its  triumph  the  majesty  of  the  benevo- 
lent law,  personified  in  the  fat-faced  squire,  as  it  works 
to  the  edification  of  that  handful  of  impecunious  and 
litigious  fellow-citizens  who  were  forced  to  stay  on  the 
Bar. 

Vni.   THE  WARFARE   AGAINST  THE   FOREIGNERS. 

We  have  now  disposed,  we  hope  forever,  of  the  fa- 
miliar pioneer  theory  that  makes  the  "  foreign  crimi- 
nals "  the  one  great  cause  of  the  troubles  of  the  miners. 
The  rapid  degeneration  of  the  weaker  young  men  of  all 
Borts  in  those  times  has  been  commonly  enough  noticed 
1  Op.  cit.f  vol.  iv.  p.  347. 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR   ORDER.  357 

in  the  accounts  of  the  mines.  The  foreigners,  too,  had 
their  share  in  the  effects  of  this  tendency,  and  the 
Spanish- Americans  most  of  all,  because  they  were  most 
abused,  and  least  capable  of  resisting  the  moral  effects 
of  abuse.  Many  of  them  were  also  bad  enough  to  begin 
with,  and  that  there  were  great  numbers  of  foreign  rogues 
in  California  is,  of  course,  certain.  But  for  the  rapid 
degeneration,  both  of  individuals  and  of  communities,  the 
honest  men  were  chiefly  to  blame,  because  they  knew 
the  danger,  and  neglected  for  a  time,  in  the  mines, 
every  serious  social  duty.  The  honest  men  were,  at  the 
worst,  a  fair  majority,  and  were  usually  an  overwhelm- 
ing majority  of  the  mining  communities.  Had  they  not 
been  so,  CaUfornia  would  never  have  emerged  from  the 
struggle  as  soon  as  it  did.  Since  they  were  so,  it  is 
useless  for  the  survivors  now  to  remind  us  of  the  un- 
doubtedly honorable  intentions  of  these  good  miners  of 
early  days,  and  to  lay  all  the  blame  elsewhere.  Not 
every  one  that  saith  Lord  !  Lord  !  is  a  good  citizen. 

But  if  the  foreign  criminals  were  not  the  great  source 
of  mischief,  the  honest  men  certainly  did  all  that  they 
could  to  make  these  foreigners  such  a  source.  The  fear- 
ful blindness  of  the  early  behavior  of  the  Americans  in 
California  towards  foreigners  is  something  almost  unin- 
telligible. The  avaricious  thirst  for  gold  among  the 
Americans  themselves  can  alone  explain  the  corruption 
of  heart  that  induced  this  blindness.  Some  of  the  ef- 
fects we  have  already  seen.  "We  must  look  yet  a  little 
closer  at  this  aspect  of  the  struggle. 

The  problem  of  the  future  relations  of  foreigners  and 
Americans  in  California  was,  at  the  moment  of  the  birth 
of  the  State,  undoubtedly  perplexing.  A  mixed  popu- 
lation of  gold-seekers  was  obviously  a  thing  to  be  feared. 


358  CALIFORNIA. 

Left  to  themselves,  American  miners,  as  it  seemed, 
might  be  trusted  to  keep  a  fair  order.  With  all  sorts 
of  people  thronging  the  territory,  danger  might  be  ap- 
prehended. This  problem,  then,  as  to  the  future,  was 
sure  to  trouble  even  the  clearest  heads.  But,  after  all, 
clear  heads  ought  quickly  to  have  understood  that  this 
perplexing  problem  was  not  for  any  man,  but,  in  its 
main  elements,  only  for  fortune  to  solve  ;  and  that  the 
work  of  sensible  men  must  be  limited  to  minimizing  the 
threatening  evils  by  caution,  by  industrious  good  citizen- 
ship, and  by  a  conciliatory  behavior.  The  foreigners 
could  not,  on  the  whole,  be  kept  from  coming.  One 
could  only  choose  whether  one  would  encourage  the 
better  or  the  worse  class  of  foreigners  to  come  to  the 
land,  and  whether  one  would  seek  to  make  those  who 
came  friendly  and  peaceable,  or  rebellious  and  desperate. 
But  the  California  public  and  the  first  legislature  chose 
to  pass  an  act  to  discourage  decent  foreigners  from  vis- 
iting California,  and  to  convert  into  rogues  all  honest 
foreigners  who  might  have  come.  This  was,  indeed, 
not  the  title  of  the  act.  It  was  the  Foreign  Miners' 
Tax  Law  of  1850. 

Its  avowed  purpose  was  as  far  as  possible  to  exclude 
foreigners  from  these  mines,  the  God-given  property  of 
the  American  people.  Its  main  provision  was  a  tax  of 
thirty  dollars  a  month  (levied  by  means  of  the  sale  of 
monthly  licenses)  upon  each  foreigner  engaged  in  min- 
ing. At  the  time  when  it  was  passed  there  were  al- 
ready several  thousand  Sonoran  miners  in  California ; 
and,  as  we  have  also  seen,  there  had  already  been  diffi- 
culty with  them  in  the  southern  mines,  a  difficulty  that, 
as,  we  learn  from  Bayard  Taylor,^  passed  off  peaceably 

1  See  also  Riley's  letter  (Cal.  Docs,  of  1850,  p.  788)  as  corrobora* 
tkm. 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  ORDER.  359 

enough  at  the  moment,  because  the  Sonorans  would  not 
fight.  Taylor's  mistake  lay  in  supposing  the  Sonorans 
to  have  been  seriously  discouraged.  In  the  next  year 
they  were  more  numerous  than  ever.  So  the  public  and 
the  legislature  were  forewarned.  The  common  talk 
about  our  national  divine  right  to  all  the  gold  in  Cali- 
fornia was  detestable  mock-pious  cant,  and  we  knew  it. 
The  right  and  duty  that  undoubtedly  belonged  to  us 
was  to  build  up  a  prosperous  and  peaceful  community 
anywhere  on  our  own  soil.  But  you  cannot  build  up  a 
prosperous  and  peaceful  community  so  long  as  you  pass 
laws  to  oppress  and  torment  a  large  resident  class  of  the 
community.  The  one  first  duty  of  a  state  is  to  keep  its 
own  peace,  and  not  to  disturb  the  peace.  The  legisla- 
tors must  have  known  that  to  pass  the  law  was  to  lead 
almost  inevitably  to  violent  efEorts  at  an  evasion  of  its 
monstrous  provisions,  and  was  meanwhile  to  subject  the 
foreigners  to  violent  assaults  from  any  American  ruf- 
fians who  might  choose  to  pretend,  in  the  wild  mountain 
regions,  that  they  were  themselves  the  state  officers. 
Violence  must  lead  to  violence,  and  the  State  would 
have  done  all  it  could  to  sanction  the  disturbances. 

Seldom  is  a  political  mistake  so  quickly  judged  by 
events.  The  next  legislature,  little  wiser  about  many 
things  than  its  predecessor,  was  still,  in  this  matter, 
forced  quickly  enough  to  withdraw  its  predecessor's  ab- 
surdity from  the  statute-books.  The  "  Alta  California  " 
breathes  with  a  sigh  the  general  relief  on  hearing  that 
this  is  done.^    But  ere  it  could  be  done,  untold  mischief, 

1  See  the  weekh'  Alta,  m  the  Harvard  College  Library  file,  for 
March  15  and  March  22,  1851.  As  appears  from  remarks  and  news 
herein  contained,  the  repeal  of  the  tax  was,  like  all  political  action, 
the  product  of  manifold  motives.  San  Francisco  felt  bitterly,  as  the 
chief  pbrt  of  the  State,  the  loss  of  commerce  that  the  act  directly  and 


CALIFORNIA. 

which  added  fearfully  to  the  sorrows  of  the  struggle  for 
order,  had  been  caused  by  the  unlucky  act. 

No  adventurer,  no  gambler,  no  thief,  no  cutthroat, 
who  had  desired  to  come  to  California  from  Mexico,  or 
elsewhere  abroad,  could  be  prevented  by  a  threat  of  tax- 
ing him  thirty  dollars  a  month  for  mining.  Many  a  cau- 
tious, sober,  intelligent  foreigner  might  be  warned  away 
by  the  exorbitant  tax,  as  well  as  by  the  hostility  which 
it  indicated.  For,  when  levied  not  upon  the  uncom- 
monly lucky  miner,  with  his  two  ounces  or  his  pound  a 
day,  but  upon  the  ordinary  poor  devil,  with  his  ups  and 
downs,  whose  "  wages  "  per  month  were  in  only  a  very 
few  months  more  than  enough  to  support  him  at  the 
prices  that  prevailed,  and  in  the  winter  months  were 
often  nothing  at  all,  the  thirty-dollar  tax  was  a  mon- 
strous imposition.  And  when  levied  on  men  who  had 
come  already  in  1848,  and  who  had  often  felt,  before 
the  passage  of  the  act,  that  the  Americans  hated  them 
merely  for  being  the  more  skillful  miners,  this  tax 
was  a  blow  that  their  hot  spirits  were  sure  to  resent. 

Trouble  came  at  once,  and  quickly  culminated  in  the 
difficulties  at  Sonora,  in  1850.  From  his  sources  Mr. 
Shinn  has  given,  in  chapter  xviii.  of  the  "  Mining 
Camps,"  an  account  of  this  disturbance.^    He  regards  it 

indirectly  entailed.  Business  men,  in  Stockton  and  the  southern 
mines,  complained  of  the  loss  of  customers.  Every  one,  by  March, 
1851,  was  weary  of  the  insecurity  produced  by  the  bickerings  with 
the  foreigners.  And,  at  a  public  meeting  held  (as  the  Alta  reports) 
in  Stockton,  March  6,  1851,  and  addressed  by  several  speakers,  among 
others  by  one  "Terry,"  whom  I  supposed  to  be  the  well-known  judge 
of  later  years,  the  discussion  is  made  to  touch  on  the  vital  national 
question  of  north  and  south.  The  tax  law  is  called  a  scheme  to  de- 
press the  enterprise  of  the  southern  mines,  and  so  of  the  southern  por- 
tion of  the  State,  whose  sectional  sympathies  were  well  known. 
1  Hifl  chief  source,  I  suppose,  is  the  Miners^    Directory  of  TuO' 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  ORDER.  361 

as  a  "case  where  indignation  against  foreigners  had 
much  justification."  I  am  prepared  to  believe  that 
whenever  it  is  proved,  but  what  I  have  been  able  to 
gather  from  the  contemporary  newspaper  files  makes  me 
prefer  to  express  the  matter  by  calling  the  affair  a  not 
wholly  unprovoked,  but  still  disgraceful  riot  on  the  part 
of  Americans.  They  were  undoubtedly  harassed  by 
foreigners  of  the  poorer  sort,  and  a  number  of  mui*ders 
were  committed  by  such,  but  when  the  Americans  turned 
upon  foreigners  as  a  class,  and  especially  upon  Sonorans 
and  South  Americans,  and  tried  to  exclude  them  from 
the  mines  in  a  body,  by  means  of  mob-violence,  sup- 
ported by  resolutions  passed  at  miners'  meetings,  the 
undertaking  was  a  brutal  outrage,  and  the  good  sense 
of  decent  Americans  quickly  rebounded,  for  the  moment, 
from  the  mood  that  could  be  guilty  of  such  behavior. 
The  result  was,  however,  meanwhile,  that  many  foreign- 
ers were  rendered  desperate  and  were  turned  into  dan- 
gerous rascals,  and  that  many  more  were  driven  vio- 
lently away  from  the  mines  ;  but  that,  nevertheless,  the 
body  of  the  foreign  miners  remained  in  the  mines  at 
their  work,  ill-humored,  suspicious,  and  ready  for  the 
worst ;  so  that  the  last  state  of  "  those  diggings  "  was  far 
worse  than  the  first.  There  is  here  no  space  for  a  dis- 
cussion of  the  sources  bearing  on  this  topic ;  and  these 
Sonoran  difficulties  form  one  of  the  many  still  almost 
unstudied  topics  that  abound  in  California  history,  and 
that  invite  monographic  treatment.  I  can  give  only  the 
result  of  what  I  so  far  can  make  out.  When,  early  in 
the  summer  of  1850,  the  collectors  came  for  the  foreign 

\umne  County  (Sonora,  1856),  which  he  cites  in  his  Land  Laws  of 
Mining  Camps,  and  elsewhere.  This  pamphlet  I  have  not  been  able 
to  use. ' 


362  CALIFORNIA. 

miners'  tax,  they  found  the  foreigners  surly  and  suspi- 
cious, and  did  what  was  possible  to  make  them  more  so. 
A  number  of  murders  were  committed  by  "  Mexicans," 
and  then  the  American  miners  began  to  meet,  and  to 
pass  resolutions,  not  against  murderers,  nor  in  favor  of 
a  firm  organization  of  the  regular  machinery  of  law, 
but  against  foreigners.  One  famous  set  of  resolutions, 
quoted  in  all  the  authorities  on  this  affair,  pronounced 
in  favor  of  a  committee  of  three  Americans  in  each 
camp,  to  decide  what  foreigners  were  "  respectable," 
and  to  exclude  all  others  by  a  sort  of  executive  order, 
meanwhile  depriving  those  who  remained  of  all  arms, 
save  in  cases  where  special  permits  should  be  issued. 
One  is  reminded  once  more,  by  this  procedure,  of  poor 
Ide  and  the  "  blessings  of  liberty."  Other  resolutions, 
passed  in  those  days,  and  often  later  in  various  camps, 
excluded  foreigners  altogether,  sometimes  giving  the 
obvious  intentions  of  Providence  as  the  reason  for  this 
brutality.  There  followed  numerous  assaults  upon  Mex- 
icans, and  several  riotous  assemblages  of  Americans. 

It  is  impossible  to  judge  how  far  the  newspaper  re- 
ports of  foreign  outrages  in  that  region  and  time,  out- 
rages such  as  robberies  and  murders  committed  upon 
Americans,  are  truthful.  Any  mysterious  outrage  was 
attributed  to  "  Mexicans  ;  "  any  American  wretch  who 
chanced  to  find  it  useful  could  in  moments  of  excite- 
ment divert  suspicion  from  himself,  by  mentioning  the 
Mexicans  in  general,  or  any  particular  Mexicans,  as  the 
authors  of  his  crimes.  And,  in  "  those  diggings,"  there 
were,  undoubtedly,  numerous  Mexicans  who  well  de- 
served hanging.  But  the  story  as  told  by  the  foreign 
population  is  not  known  to  us.  We  can  see  only  indi- 
rectly, through  the  furious  and  confused  reports  of  the 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  ORDER.  363 

Americans  themselves,  how  much  of  organized  and 
coarse  brutality  these  Mexicans  suffered  from  the  min- 
ers' meetings.  The  outrages  committed  by  foreigners 
were  after  all,  however  numerous,  the  crimes  of  indi- 
viduals. Ours  were  the  crimes  of  a  community,  con- 
sisting largely  of  honest  but  cruelly  bigoted  men,  who 
encouraged  the  ruffians  of  their  own  nation  to  ill-treat 
the  wanderers  of  another,  to  the  frequent  destruction  of 
peace  and  good  order.  We  were  favored  of  heaven 
with  the  instinct  of  organization  ;  and  so  here  we  organ- 
ized brutality,  and,  so  to  speak,  asked  God's  blessing 
upon  it.  The  foreigners  were  often  enough  degraded 
wretches ;  such  drank,  gambled,  stole,  and  sometimes 
murdered :  they  were  also,  often  enough,  honest  fel- 
lows, or  even  men  of  high  character  and  social  posi- 
tion ;  and  such  we  tried  in  our  way  to  ruin.  In  all  cases 
they  were,  as  foreigners,  unable  to  form  their  own  gov- 
ernment, or  to  preserve  their  own  order.  And  so  we 
kept  them  in  fear,  and,  as  far  as  possible,  in  misery. 

So  ill  we  indeed  did  not  treat  them  as  some  nations 
would  have  done  ;  we  did  not  massacre  them  wholesale, 
as  Turks  might  have  massacred  them  :  that  treatment  we 
reserved  for  the  defenseless  Digger  Indians,  whose  vil- 
lages certain  among  our  miners  used  on  occasion  to  re- 
gard as  targets  for  rifle-practice,  or  to  destroy  wholesale 
with  fire,  outrage,  and  murder,  as  if  they  had  been  so 
many  wasps'  nests  in  our  gardens  at  home.  Nay,  the 
foreign  miners,  being  civilized  men,  generally  received 
"fair  trials,"  as  we  said,  whenever  they  were  accused. 
It  was,  however,  considered  safe  by  an  average  lynch- 
ing jury  in  those  days  to  convict  a  "  greaser  "  on  very 
moderate  evidence,  if  none  better  could  be  had.  One 
could  see  his  guilt  so  plainly  written,  we  know,  in  his 


364  CALIFORNIA. 

ngly  swarthy  face,  before  the  trial  began.  Therefore 
the  life  of  a  Spanish-American  in  the  mines  in  the  early 
days,  if  frequently  profitable,  was  apt  to  be  a  little  dis- 
agreeable. It  served  him  right,  of  course.  He  had  no 
business,  as  an  alien,  to  come  to  the  land  that  God  had 
given  us.  And  if  he  was  a  native  Californian,  a  born 
"  greaser,"  then  so  much  the  worse  for  him.  He  was 
so  much  the  more  our  born  foe ;  we  hated  his  whole 
degenerate,  thieving,  land-owning,  lazy,  and  discontented 
race.  Some  of  them  were  now  even  bandits ;  most  of 
them  by  this  time  were,  with  our  help,  more  or  less 
drunkards  ;  and  it  was  not  our  fault  if  they  were  not  all 
rascals  !     So  they  deserved  no  better. 

The  Sonora  troubles  of  1850  would  be  less  significant 
if  they  had  expressed  only  a  temporary  mistake,  and 
had  given  place  to  a  proper  comprehension  of  our  duty 
to  foreigners.  But  although  the  exorbitant  foreign  min- 
er's tax  was  repealed  in  1851,  and  although,  when  a  tax 
was  reimposed  later,  it  was  of  comparatively  moderate 
amount,  still  the  miners  themselves  were  not  converted 
from  their  error  until  long  afterwards,  and,  in  numerous 
individual  cases,  they  were  never  converted  at  all.  The 
violent  self-assertions  that  from  time  to  time  were  made 
of  the  American  spirit  over  against  the  foreign  element, 
accomplished  absolutely  no  good  aim,  and  only  increased 
the  bitterness  on  both  sides,  while  corrupting  more  and 
more  our  own  sense  of  justice.  Instead,  therefore,  of 
justifying  themselves  as  necessary  acts  of  "  self-preser- 
vation," the  miners'  outbreaks  against  foreigners  only 
rendered  their  own  lives  and  property  less  secure.  Two 
years  after  the  Sonora  troubles,  one  finds  in  the  sununer 
of  1852  the  same  weary  business  going  on  in  the  south- 
em  mines,  less  imposing,  no  doubt,  in  its  expressions  of 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR   ORDER.  365 

wrath,  but  none  the  less  disgraceful  and  demoralizing.* 
The  later  the  year,  the  more  certain  it  is  that  all  molesta- 
tion of  foreigners  who  had  been  in  the  peaceful  posses- 
sion of  claims  meant  simply  confiscation  of  valuable 
property  that  had  been  acquired  by  hard  toil.  For  such 
claims,  in  these  later  times,  were  often  river-bed  claims, 
or  "  coyote-holes,"  or  similarly  laborious  enterprises.  So, 
in  the  disturbance  in  July,  1852,  in  Mariposa,  referred 
to  in  the  foregoing  note,  the  foreign  miners,  as  appears 
from  the  report,  had  undertaken  all  the  work  of  turning 
the  course  of  a  river,  and  their  property  was  confiscated 
as  soon  as  it  was  perceived  to  be  valuable.^  And  the 
turpitude  of  such  conduct  is  especially  manifest  from  the 
fact  that  the  foreigners  (as  Auger,  just  cited,  admits  in 
case  of  his  own  countrymen)  were  in  any  case,  and  even 
under  the  fairest  treatment,  at  a  serious  disadvantage  in 
all  operations  of  an  extensive  sort,  by  reason  of  their 
comparative  deficiency  in  the  character  and  training 
required  in  order  to  improvise,  amid  the  confusion  of 
a  new  country,  greater  organizations  of  labor  and  cap- 
ital.     The  Frenchmen,  says  Auger  (p.  106),  in  case  of 

1  See  in  the  steamer  Alta  (Harvard  College  Library  file)  for  July 
13,  1852,  the  account  of  the  expulsion  of  foreign  miners,  French  and 
Spanish- American  especially,  from  expensive  and  valuable  claims  in 
Mariposa.  See,  also,  resolutions  of  miners  at  Sonora,  passed  October 
12,  in  the  steamer  Alta  of  November  1,  ordering  foreigners  out  of  the 
mines. 

2  E.  Auger,  in  his  Voyage  en  Californie  (Paris,  1857),  p.  112,  gives 
an  account  from  hearsay,  whose  correctness  I  am  unable  to  control,  of 
one  of  the  earlier  difficulties  between  French  and  American  miners  in 
the  southern  mines,  and  remarks  in  that  connection,  very  accurately, 
that,  among  the  miners  "  La  justice  favorise  gdn^ralement  les  Ameri- 
cains  aux  depens  des  Strangers."  On  page  106,  the  author  recounts 
from  hearsay  another  quarrel  at  this  time  over  a  river-bed  claim,  "  sur 
le  Stanislaus-river,"  where  his  countrymen  were  violently  dispos- 
sessed." This  may  be  the  Mariposa  case  misplaced. 


CALIFORNIA. 

great  mining  undertakings,  "ont  toujours  c4d^  au  de- 
couragement  qui  remplagait  chez  eux  une  ardeur  im- 
moderee  ou  aux  divisions  intestines  qui  les  separaient 
brusquement  au  moment  de  recueillir  les  fruits  de  leur 
enterprise."  He  excepts  only  the  one  greater  case  cited, 
where  the  Americans  did  the  work  of  dissolution  for  the 
Frenchmen.!  Thus,  however,  the  very  instinct  and 
training  of  which  we  in  this  land  have  such  good  rea- 
son to  be  p'roud,  aggravates,  in  the  present  case,  our  dis- 
grace. Because  we  knew  so  well  how  to  organize,  we 
were  not  the  weak  nor  the  injured  party,  but  had  these 
foreigners  at  our  mercy ;  and  for  the  same  reason  our 
outrages  upon  them  were  organized  outrages,  expressions 
of  our  peculiar  national  combination  of  a  love  of  order 
with  a  frequently  detestable  meanness  towards  stran- 
gers. 

The  northern  mines,  however,  are  often  supposed  to 
have  been  not  only  more  orderly,  but  also  more  tolerant. 
This  is  probably,  on  the  whole,  the  case.  As  there 
were  fewer  foreigners  present  in  the  northern  mines, 
the  temptations  to  abuse  them  were  less  frequent.  In 
some  cases,  however,  proof  can  be  found  even  in  the 
southern  mines  themselves  of  very  great  earnestness  in 
the  enforcement  of  the  rights  of  foreigners.  An  amus- 
ing account  is  given  (in  a  book  that  contains  a  series 
of  well-written  and  apparently  substantially  truthful 
sketches  of  California  life,  by  a  Canadian)  of  a  demon- 
stration in  a  camp  on  the  Stanislaus,  as  late  as  1856,  by 
the  whole  force  of  the  camp  to  protect  certain  Chinamen 

1  Borthwick,  op.  dt.,  p.  369,  cited  also  by  Mr.  Shinn,  in  the  Mining 
Camps,  p.  155,  contrasts  finely  the  organizing  power  of  the  American 
miners  with  the  gregarious  habits  of  the  seldom  organized  French 
miners,  and  makes  the  fact  illustrate  national  peculiarities. 


I 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  ORDER.  367 


m  their  rights  as  miners.^  This  camp,  Shaw  tells  us, 
was  inhabited  mainly  by  miners  from  the  northern  States 
of  the  Union,  and  where  the  influence  of  such  was  par- 
amount it  may  have  been,  in  general,  a  somewhat  more 
tolerant  influence.  Yet,  once  for  all,  our  American 
intolerance  towards  the  unassimilable  foreigner  is  not 
a  sectional  peculiarity,  however  often  it  may  appear 
somewhat  more  prominently  in  one  section  of  our 
land  than  in  another.  Atid  the  northern  mines  show  us 
numerous  cases  of  it.  "  Shirley's "  experiences,  we 
remember,  were  in  the  northern  mines.  It  was  in  the 
same  mines,  and  in  the  same  summer  of  1852,  that 
miners'  meetings  at  Bidwell's  Bar,  at  Foster's  Bar,  at 
Soiigh-and^Ready,  and  elsewhere,  passed  resolutions 
excluding  foreigners.^  This  shows  how  the  same  vain 
and  demoralizing  undertakings  were  still  believed  in  at 
the  north  that  had  been  so  disastrous  at  the  south. 
And  one  sees  in  another  form  how  little  reliance  can  be 
placed  upon  the  impression  that  the  baseness  of  the  for- 
eigners in  California  was  to  blame  for  the  chief  troubles 

1  Pringle  Shaw,  Ramblings  in  California  (Toronto,  James  Bain;  date 
of  publication  not  given,  but  apparently  not  far  from  1858),  p.  72, 
sqq.  An  American  miner  sold  his  claim  to  Chinamen,  who  were  dis- 
possessed by  three  "gaunt  long-haired  fellows"  from  Arkansas. 
Shaw  was  himself  the  recorder  of  claims  in  the  district,  appointed  to 
his  office  by  the  miners'  meeting.  The  Chinamen  complained  to  him, 
he  remonstrated  with  the  "jumpers,"  and  was  insulted  and  threat- 
ened by  them.  He  then  called  out  the  force  of  the  camp,  about  one 
hundred  men,  who  marched  in  military  order  to  the  disputed  claim, 
under  arms,  and  gave  solemn  warning  to  the  Arkansas  trio  to  leave  it 
in  five  minutes.     The  order  was  obeyed. 

2  Steamer  Alta  for  May  31  and  June  15,  1852.  In  the  meeting  at 
Bidwell's  Bar,  the  miners  expressed  great  indignation  at  "all  mer- 
chants and  shipping  agents  engaged  in  transporting  "  a  countless 
number  of  villains  from  all  parts  of  the  world  to  California."  So  the 
AUa  (steamer  edition  of  June  J5)  expresses  their  view,  partly  in  their 
own  woids. 


CALIFORNIA. 

of  the  struggle  for  order  in  the  mines.  But,  as  a  cro"vni- 
ing  illustration  of  the  position  of  the  northern  miners 
in  this  matter,  the  fact  remains  that  in  Downieville,  far 
up  in  the  northern  mines,  was  committed  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1851  the  most  outrageous  act  of  lynch  law  in  all 
the  pioneer  annals,  the  entirely  unnecessary  hanging  of 
a  woman,  whose  death,  under  the  circumstances,  was 
plainly  due,  not  merely  to  her  known  guilt,  but  quite  as 
much  to  the  fact  that  she  was  not  an  American.  And 
the  deed  was  not  only  done  but  defended  by  American 
miners. 

IX.    THE   DOWNIEVILLE   LYNCHING   OF  JULY  5,    1851. 

Very  obvious  considerations  lead  civilized  men,  in 
times  of  social  disturbance  even  more  than  in  times  of 
peace  and  good  order,  to  be  lenient  to  the  public  of- 
fenses of  women.  A  man  who  gravely  transgresses 
against  order  is  necessarily  viewed  first  of  all  as  trans- 
gressor, and  only  in  the  second  place  do  his  fellows  re- 
member that  considerations  of  mercy,  of  charity,  or  of 
his  own  personal  merit,  may  enter,  to  qualify  the  stern- 
ness of  justice  towards  him.  But  a  woman,  however 
she  transgresses  against  law  and  order,  is  necessarily 
regarded  first  of  all  as  a  woman,  and  only  in  the  second 
place  does  one  remember  that  even  in  her  case  justice 
must  have  its  place.  Therefore  all  the  considerations 
that  may  render  lynch  law  a  temporary  necessity  among 
men  in  an  unsettled  community  have,  obviously,  abso- 
lutely no  application  to  the  few  women  who  may  chance 
to  be  there.  If  they  become  intolerable,  a  quiet  ex- 
pulsion of  them  must  serve,  until  such  a  time  as  the 
community,  having  made  up  its  mind  to  behave  sensibly, 
has  provided  prisons  to  confine  them. 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR   ORDER.  369 

However,  the  people  of  Downieville,  In  July,  1851, 
were  once  led  to  think  differently.  The  incident  has 
been  frequently  mentioned  in  books  and  essays  about 
the  early  times,  and  has  often  been  regarded  with  hor- 
ror, and  often,  also,  explained  and  even  defended,  as  a 
necessity  of  the  moment.  Garbled  accounts  of  it  are 
found,  sometimes,  in  the  later  pioneer  reminiscenceSo* 
Of  the  newspapers  of  the  time  that  I  have  been  able  to 
use,  but  one,  so  far  as  I  know,  has  an  extended  account 
of  the  affair  coming  directly  from  an  eye-witness.  This 
paper  is  the  "  Daily  Pacific  Star,"  of  San  Francisco, 
whose  version,  I  believe,  has  never  yet  been  employed 
for  historical  purposes.  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  come 
upon  this  version  while  consulting  a  partial  file  of  the 
paper  in  the  Mercantile  Library  in  San  Francisco,  and 
upon  it  I  have  here  largely  depended.  Other  news- 
paper reports,  such  as  the  "  Alta "  account,  or  that  in 
the  "Sacramento  Transcript,"  I  have  seen;  but  they 
are  brief  and  unsatisfactory.  On  the  whole  it  is  plain 
that  the  newspapers,  even  in  those  plain-spoken  days  of 
early  California,  were  disposed  to  hush  the  matter  up  as 
soon  as  possible.  One  of  the  editors  of  the  "  Star " 
happened  to  be  in  Downieville  at  the  time ;  hence  this 
particular  report  in  the  "  Star  "  for  July  19,  1851. 

On  the  night  of  July  4,  one  Cannan,  apparently  an 
American,^  was  walking  home  with  some  friends,  in  a 
state  of  mind  and   body  appropriate  to    the   occasion, 

1  See,  for  example,  the  otherwise  generally  inaccurate  essay  of  Mr. 
H.  Robinson,  on  "Pioneer  Times  in  California,"  in  the  Overland 
Monthly  for  1872,  vol.  viii.  p.  457.  See,  also,  Borthwick's  uncon- 
sciously unfair  version,  from  hearsay,  op.  cit.,  p.  222. 

2  If  Mr.  Robinson,  in  the  essay  cited,  can  be  viewed  as  trustworthy, 
he  was  a  man  of  good  position  among  the  miners,  and  member  of  axx 
Influential  order. 

2i 


370  CALIFORNIA. 

when  they  passed  near  the  house  where,  as  they  well 
knew,  there  lived,  together  with  her  Spanish  paramour, 
a  young  woman  of  Spanish- American  race.  She  was, 
it  would  seem,  a  person  whose  associates  were  mostly 
gamblers;  just  how  irregular  her  life  was  does  not 
appear,  save  from  this  one  item  about  her  paramour. 
To  judge  by  what  is  stated,  she  may  therefore  have  been 
of  at  least  pretended  fidelity  to  him.  All  accounts  make 
her  a  woman  of  considerable  beauty,  of  some  intelligence 
and  vivacity,  and  of  a  still  quite  youthful  appearance ; 
and  she  seems  to  have  been  a  person  not  at  all  despised 
in  the  camp.  At  this  moment  her  house  was  dark,  and 
the  occupants  were  sleeping.  But  Cannan,  in  passing 
by,  stumbled  and  fell,  as  his  companions  say,  against  the 
door  of  her  house  ;  and  the  light,  rude  door  giving  way, 
he  fell  half  inside.  One  of  his  companions  pulled  him 
back,  saying :  "  Come  out ;  hush  up  ;  there  's  a  woman 
in  that  house,"  or  some  such  words.  As  Cannan  rose, 
he  had,  in  a  drunken  whim,  picked  up  something  from 
the  floor,  just  inside  the  house  door  —  a  scarf  or  some 
like  article  ;  and  his  companions  with  difficulty  got  it 
away  from  him  to  throw  it  back.  Then  they  all  found 
their  probably  deviious  way  homewards. 

Next  morning  Cannan,  with  one  of  the  same  compan- 
ions, passed  by  the  house,  and  announced  to  his  com- 
panion his  purpose  to  apologize  to  the  woman  for  having 
made  the  disturbance  of  the  night  before.  Cannan 
could  speak  Spanish,  which  his  companion  did  not  un- 
derstand, 80  that  we  have,  in  this  resj)ect,  no  competent 
witness  surviving  the  following  scene.  At  all  events, 
as  Cannan's  companion  testifies,  the  companion  of  the 
woman  met  them  at  the  door  as  they  approached,  and 
seemed   angry  with   Cannan,  and   was   understood   to 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR   ORDER.  371 

threaten  him.  A  moment  later,  the  woman  herself 
appeared,  and  spoke  yet  more  angrily.  Cannan  con- 
tinued the  conversation  in  what  seemed  to  his  companion 
a  conciliatory  tone;  the  woman,  however,  grew  con- 
stantly more  excited  at  his  words,  whatever  they  were, 
and  erelong  drew  a  knife,  rushed  quickly  upon  him, 
and  stabbed  him  to  death  at  a  stroke.  Whether  Cannan 
really  gave  any  momentary  provocation  by  violent  and 
insulting  language  addressed  to  the  woman,  this  Ameri- 
can witness  is  of  course  unable  to  testify.  Both  the 
woman  herself  and  her  paramour  afterwards  asserted 
that  he  did,  and  that  it  was  his  abuse,  used  in  the  course 
of  the  quarrel,  which  drove  her  to  the  act,  in  an  outburst 
of  fury. 

The  deed  was  quickly  known  throughout  the  town, 
and  the  citizens  at  once  organized  a  popular  court,  in 
the  ordinary  lynchers'  form,  with  an  elected  judge  and 
a  jury.  The  woman  and  her  paramour  were  brought 
before  the  court,  the  crowd  feeling  and  showing  mean- 
while very  great  excitement.  Some  shouted,  "  Hang 
them  ;  "  others,  "  Give  them  a  trial.''  Our  eye-witness 
heard  a  number  also  shout,  "  Give  them  a  fair  trial 
and  then  hang  them"  a  compromise  which  seems  per- 
fectly to  have  expressed  the  Great  American  Mind,  as 
represented  by  these  particular  townspeople.  A  gentle- 
man present,  named  Thayer,  protested  indeed  openly, 
during  the  excitement,  against  this  popular  violence,  but 
he  was  ordered  by  the  crowd  "  to  consult  his  own  safety 
and  desist."  The  trial  began  in  the  presence  of  the 
impatient  crowd.  The  disturbance  of  the  previous  night 
was  recounted  ;  Cannan's  friends  insisting  that  there 
was  no  intention  on  their  part  to  trouble  the  woman; 
and  that  what  happened  was  due  to  a  drunken  accident 


y 


372  CALIFORNIA. 

and  a  frail  door.  The  murder  was  described  by  Can- 
nan's  companion,  and  the  two  accused,  being  called 
upon,  both  gave,  as  the  woman's  sole  justification,  her 
rage  at  Cannan's  midnight  disturbance,  and  at  his  abuse. 
The  man  had  evidently  had  no  part  in  the  murder, 
which  was  the  work  of  the  instant. 

Then  followed,  it  would  seem,  a  recess  in  the  trial,  and 
thereafter  a  little  more  testimony  for  the  defense.  A 
physician.  Dr.  Aiken,  was  called  by  the  woman,  and 
gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  she  was  with  child  in  the 
third  month.  The  doctor  made,  as  the  editor  tells  us, 
a  very  unfavorable  impression  on  the  people.  The  only 
reason  given  for  this  unfavorable  impression  is  "  that  he 
seemed  desirous,  so  it  was  thought,  to  save  the  prisoner." 
Never  before  this  in  California,  and  never  since,  so  far 
as  I  know,  has  Judge  Lynch  been  called  upon  to  deal 
with  the  delicate  question  now  presented  to  this  court. 
The  Great  American  Mind  suggested,  under  the  circum- 
stances, a  consultation  of  physicians,  and  another  physi- 
cian was  called,  who,  with  Dr.  Aiken,  retired  into  a 
house,  taking  the  prisoner.  The  Great  American  Mind 
itself,  meanwhile,  grew  intensely  excited  outside  the 
frail  structure  in  which  the  consultation  was  taking 
place  ;  and  this  mind  induced  the  crowd  who  represented 
it  to  threaten  fiercely,  and  in  no  whispers,  the  offending 
Dr.  Aiken,  and  to  fill  the  air  with  shouts  of  "  Hang 
her.''*  The  result  whereof  was  that  at  this  very  orderly 
and  decent  consultation  of  scientific  experts,  while  Dr. 
Aiken  seems  not  to  have  been  convinced  of  his  error, 
the  consulting  physician  kept  his  own  and  his  fellow's 
skin  safe  by  announcing  what  we  may  hope  to  have 
been  a  sincere,  and  even  by  chance  a  well-founded,  opin- 
ion, that  differed  altogether  from  Dr.  Aiken's.     Here- 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  ORDER.  373 

apon  the  jury  soon  quieted  the  tumult  of  the  Great 
American  Mind  by  declaring  their  verdict  of  guilty 
against  the  woman,  and  by  themselves  passing  sentence 
of  death  upon  her,  while  they  acquitted  the  man.  As 
it  is  an  old  trick  of  hypocritical  flatterers  of  public  opin- 
ion in  this  land  to  attribute  all  outrages  and  riots  to  our 
foreign  fellow-residents,  we  do  only  justice  if  we  remark 
that  the  names  of  the  jurymen  at  this  trial  are  given, 
and  are  as  native  to  our  language  as  are  the  names  of 
Bunyan's  jurymen  at  the  trial  of  Faithful.  In  this  in- 
stance, then,  they  are  such  names  as  Burr,  Reed,  Wood- 
ruff, and  the  like. 

One  who  fancies  that  the  fair  prisoner  was  over- 
whelmed with  abject  terror  all  this  while  does  not  know 
her  race.  That  same  afternoon  she  was  to  suffer,  and, 
when  the  time  came,  she  walked  out  very  quietly  and 
amiably,  with  hair  neatly  braided,  stepped  up  to  the 
improvised  gallows,  and  made  a  short  speech,  in  which 
she  bade  them  all  a  cheerful  farewell,  and  said  that  she 
had  no  defense  for  her  crime,  save  that  she  had  been 
made  very  angry  by  Cannan,  and  would  surely  do  the 
same  thing  again  if  she  were  to  be  spared,  and  were 
again  to  be  as  much  insulted  by  anybody.  Then  she 
adjusted  her  own  noose,  and  cheerfully  passed  away. 

This  account,  in  so  far  as  it  is  due  to  the  "  Star  "  editor, 
is  not  the  account  of  an  enemy  of  the  Downieville 
people,  or  of  an  angry  spectator.  The  "  Star  "  says, 
editorially,  that  it  cannot  very  heartily  approve  of  this 
hasty  lynching  of  a  woman,  but  that  it  expects  the  moral 
effect  of  the  act  to  be  on  the  whole  good.  Downieville 
had  been  much  troubled  with  bad  characters,  and  a 
necessity  existed  for  some  action.  "  We  witnessed  the 
trial,  and  feel  convinced  that  the  actors  desired  to  do 


374  CALIFORNIA. 

right."  They  had  in  fact  themselves  solicited  this  pub- 
lication. One  is  reminded,  as  one  reads,  of  the  saying 
attributed  to  "  Boss  "  Tweed,  in  his  last  moments,  "^e 
had  tried,'''  he  declared,  "  ^o  do  right,  but  he  had  had 
had  luck''  The  people  of  Downieville  obviously  had 
bad  luck. 

X.    THE    ATTAINMENT    OF    ORDER. 

Yet,  after  all,  the  effect  of  these  outbursts  of  popular 
fury  was  indirectly  good,  although  not  in  the  way  that 
many  pioneers  like  to  dwell  upon.  The  good  effect 
lay  in  the  very  horror  begotten  by  the  popular  demoral- 
ization that  all  this  violence  tended  to  produce.  While 
a  part  of  the  community  was  debased  by  all  these  doings, 
and  was  given  over  to  a  false  and  brutal  confidence  in 
mob  law,  a  confidence  that  many  individual  men  have 
never  since  lost,  the  better  part  of  every  such  mining 
community  learned,  from  all  this  disorder,  the  sad  lesson 
that  their  stay  in  California  was  to  be  long,  their  social 
responsibility  great,  and  their  duty  to  devote  time  and 
money  to  rational  work  as  citizens  unavoidable.  They 
saw  the  fearful  effects  of  their  own  irresponsible  freedom. 
They  began  to  form  town  governments  of  a  more  stable 
sort,  to  condemn  rather  than  to  excuse  mob  violence,  to 
regard  the  free  and  adventurous  prospecting  life,  if  pur- 
sued on  a  grand  scale,  as  a  dangerous  and  generally 
profitless  waste  of  the  community's  energies,  to  prefer 
thereto  steady  work  in  great  mining  enterprises,  and  in 
every  way  to  insist  upon  order.  The  coming  of  women, 
the  growth  of  families,  the  formation  of  church  organi- 
zations, the  building  of  school-houses,  tlie  establishment 
of  local  interests  of  all  sorts,  saved  the  wiser  communi- 
ties  from    the    horrors  of   lynch   law.      The   romantic 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  ORDER.  375 

degradation  of  the  early  mining  life,  with  its  transient 
glory,  its  fatal  fascination,  its  inevitable  brutality,  and 
its  resulting  loathsome  corruption,  gave  place  to  the 
commonplace  industries  of  the  later  mining  days.  The 
quartz  mines  and  the  deep  placers  were  in  time  devel- 
oped, vast  amounts  of  capital  came  to  be  invested  in  the 
whole  mining  industry,  and  in  a  few  years  (by  1858, 
for  instance)  many  mining  towns  were  almost  as  con- 
servative as  much  older  manufacturing  towns  have  been 
in  other  States.  For  all  this  result,  lynch  law  in  the 
mines,  after  1850,  was  responsible  only  in  so  far  as  it 
excited  in  the  minds  of  sensible  men  a  horror  of  its  own 
disorderly  atrocities.  Save  in  the  newest  camps,  and  in 
those  most  remote  from  regular  courts,  one  can  say 
almost  universally  that,  in  so  far  as  the  lynch  law  had 
been  orderly,  it  had  been  at  best  the  symptom  and  out- 
come of  a  treasonable  popular  carelessness,  while,  in  so 
far  as  it  had  been  disorderly,  it  had  been  brutal  and 
demoralizing,  and  in  itself  an  unmixed  evil.  Almost 
everywhere,  moreover,  as  we  have  seen,  it  was  not  an 
externally  produced  necessity,  forced  from  without  upon 
the  community  by  the  violence  of  invading  criminals ; 
but  it  was  the  symptom  of  an  inner  social  disease.  For 
this  disease  the  honest  men  themselves  were  the  ones 
most  responsible,  since  they  were  best  able  to  understand 
their  duty.  The  lesson  of  the  whole  matter  is  as  simple 
and  plain  as  it  is  persistently  denied  by  a  romantic 
pioneer  vanity  ;  and  our  true  pride,  as  we  look  back  to 
those  days  of  sturdy  and  sinful  life,  must  be,  not  that 
the  pioneers  could  so  successfully  show  by  their  popular 
justice  their  undoubted  instinctive  skill  in  self-govern- 
ment, —  although  indeed,  despite  all  their  sins,  they 
showed  such  a  skill  also  ;  but  that  the  moral  elasticity  of 


376  .  CALIFORNIA. 

our  people  is  so  great,  their  social  vitality  so  marvelous, 
that  a  community  of  Americans  could  sin  as  fearfully 
as,  in  the  early  years,  the  mining  community  did  sin, 
and  could  yet  live  to  purify  itself  within  so  short  a  time, 
not  by  a  revolution,  but  by  a  simple  progress  from 
social  foolishness  to  social  steadfastness.  Even  thus  a 
gi'eat  river,  for  an  hour  defiled  by  some  corrupting 
disturbance,  purifies  itself,  merely  through  its  own  flow, 
over  its  sandy  bed,  beneath  the  wide  and  sunny  heav« 
ens. 


CHAPTER  V. 

SOCIAL   EVOLUTION   IN   SAN   FEANOISCO. 

The  conservative  social  elements  are  apt  to  escape  our 
notice  as  we  study  any  time  of  great  activity.  They  are 
too  commonplace  to  fall  under  the  easy  observation  of 
eyes  that  have  become  accustomed  to  bright  lights  and 
to  strong  contrasts  of  color.  Yet  we  must  study  them 
also,  and  especially  as  they  showed  themselves,  side  by 
side  with  some  of  the  worst  elements  of  disorder,  in  the 
early  life  of  San  Francisco. 

For  in  San  Francisco,  after  all,  the  great  battle  was 
to  be  fought  and  the  victory  won,  for  the  cause  of  last- 
ing progress  in  California.  Elsewhere  the  struggle  was 
either  in  smaller  and  more  nearly  separate  towns,  or  else 
in  the  wide  but  dependent  rural  districts.  But  upon 
the  city  by  the  Golden  Gate  all  the  permanent  success  of 
the  good  cause  depended.  Here  the  young  State  was,  so 
to  speak,  nourished.  Here  the  ships  and  a  great  part 
of  the  immigrants  came.  Here  was  from  the  first  the 
centre  of  the  State's  mental  life,  and  to  a  great  extent 
of  its  political  life.  Here  good  order  must  be  preserved, 
if  any  permanent  order  was  to  be  possible  elsewhere. 
And  so  of  course  the  progress  of  San  Francisco  was  to 
be  largely  identical  with  the  progress  of  the  whole  of  the 
new  State. 

In  the  mines,  as  we  have  said,  the  great  and  compara- 
tively permanent  business  interests  of  the  years  after 


378  CALIFORNIA. 

1851,  and  the  consequent  rapid  establishment  of  all  the 
institutions  of  town  life,  rapidly  wrought  to  transform 
the  more  successful  camps  into  thrifty,  orderly,  and  re- 
spectable American  communities.  We  have  said  little 
of  the  details  of  such  transformations,  because  one  can 
/best  study  the  same  process,  only  on  a  larger  scale,  in 
;the  case  of  San  Francisco,  where  from  the  first  there 
were  large  business  interests ;  where,  soonest  of  all  places 
in  the  growing  parts  of  the  country,  there  were  to  be 
found  numerous  families  ;  and  where  the  most  justly  in- 
fluential men  were  not  wanderers  only,  but  often  mer- 
chants of  high  character,  of  conservative  aims,  and  of 
extraordinary  ability.  San  Francisco  best  illustrates 
the  mechanics  of  the  growth  of  good  order.  Naturally, 
however,  we  are  here,  as  before,  driven  to  consider  many 
dramatic  incidents  that  belong  to  the  painful  side  of  the 
[struggle  for  order. 

I.    THE   NEW   CITY   AND   THE    GREAT   FIRES. 

/  Externally,  the  San  Francisco  of  1848  underwent 
almost  magical  changes  within  the  next  three  years. 
They  have  been  so  often  described  by  enthusiastic  trav- 
elers and  sketch-writers  that  one  need  spend  no  very 
long  time  on  them  here.  At  first  the  new-comers,  in 
San  Francisco  as  in  the  mines,  would  temporarily  be- 
jstow  themselves  in  tents.  But  there  are  reasons  why  a 
;tent  in  San  Francisco,  even  in  the  dry  summer-time, 
in  the  cold  sea-breezes,  is  not  an  agreeable  dwelling. 
Hence  the  rapid  growth  of  very  lightly  and  rudely  built 
houses,  half  wood,  haK  cloth.  All  of  these  brought 
enormous  rents. 

Wierzbicki,  in  the  pamphlet  once  before  cited,  page 
49,  writes  :  "  Four  months  ago  "  (this  is  written  in  Au* 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.     379 

gust  or  September,  1849)  "  the  town  hardly  counted 
fifty  houses,  and  now  it  must  have  upwards  of  five  hun- 
dred, and  these  are  daily  increasing.  .  .  .  From  eight 
to  ten  thousand  inhabitants  may  be  afloat  in  the  streets 
of  San  Francisco,  and  hundreds  arrive  daily ;  many  live 
in  shanties,  many  in  tents,  and  many  the  best  way  they 
can."  Bayard  Taylor's  account  of  his  first  view  at 
nearly  this  same  time  ^  runs :  "  The  view  extended 
around  the  curve  of  the  bay,  and  hundreds  of  tents  and 
houses  appeared,  scattered  all  over  the  heights,  and 
along  the  shore  for  more  than  a  mile.  A  furious  wind 
was  blowing  down  through  a  gap  in  the  hills,  filling  the 
streets  with  clouds  of  dust.  On  every  side  stood  build- 
ings of  all  kinds,  begun  or  half  finished,  and  the  greater 
part  of  them  mere  canvas  sheds,  open  in  front,  and 
covered  with  all  kinds  of  signs,  in  all  languages.  Great 
quantities  of  goods  were  piled  up  in  the  open  air,  for 
want  of  a  place  to  store  them.  The  streets  were  full  of 
people,  hurrying  to  and  fro,  and  of  as  diverse  and 
bizarre  a  character  as  the  houses."  He  then  mentions 
the  various  nationalities  that  he  could  pick  out  in  the 
throng.     They  were  not  a  few,  Asiatic  and  European. 

An  example  of  the  better  sort  of  house  in  the  new 
town  was  the  "  Parker  House,"  an  ordinary  frame 
building,  which,  before  winter,  was  in  part  rented  to 
gamblers,  who  are  said  to  have  paid  at  the  rate  of  sixty 
thousand  dollars  a  year  for  their  part  of  it.  Even 
higher  is  the  sum  that  they  are  declared  by  Bayard 
Taylor  and  others  to  have  paid.  As  for  the  character 
of  all  but  the  best  of  the  hotels,  the  early  sketches  are 
never  weary  of  describing  to  us  their  enormous  prices 
and  their  fearful  accommodations,  —  the  dirt,  the  fleas, 

1  El  Dorado,  p.  55. 


380  CALIFORNIA. 

and  the  other  numberless  miseries  of  a  crowded  and 
hasty  life.^  And  even  the  best  of  the  hotels  were  poor 
indeed,  although  what  they  furnished  in  the  way  o£ 
food  was  better  than  their  other  accommodations.*  Be- 
tween the  hotel,  as  the  home  of  the  well-to-do  wanderer, 
and  the  bed  on  the  sand,  under  the  stars,  men  found 
all  sorts  of  intermediate  fashions  of  living,  according  as 
luck  guided  them.  Labor,  during  the  whole  summer  of 
1849,  commanded,  of  course,  the  highest  prices  in  San 
Francisco,  and  was  hard  to  get  at  those  ;  so  that  none 
of  the  new-comers  needed  to  starve,  while  even  the 
wealthiest  man  had  to  do  some  hard  handiwork  for  him- 
self. 

Before  the  beginning  of  the  rainy  season  piers  were 
creeping  out  into  the  bay,*  while  the  chaparral  growth 
on  the  hill-sides  above  the  town  was  rapidly  driven 
backward  by  the  houses,  while  warehouses  were  build- 
ing along  the  shore,  and  while  the  daily  growing  forests 
of  masts  in  the  bay  gave  proof  of  the  general  abandon- 
ment of  their  ships  by  the  impatient  crews.  These  de- 
serted sailing-vessels  rotted,  many  of  them,  for  years  in 
the  harbor,  the  price  of  labor  for  a  good  while  hardly 
permitting  any  undertaking  to  man  them  for  a  return 
voyage,  while  the  clippers  erelong  rendered  the  older 
vessels  finally  worthless.  Only  the  steamship  company 
could  during  this  summer  of  1849  undertake  to  main- 
tain its  regular  trips  to  and  from  Panama,  carrying  the 
mails  and  the  crowds  of  new-coming  isthmus  passengers. 
1    This  confused  and  hurriedly  built  town,  crowded  be- 

1  Annals,  p.  247. 

2  Bayard  Taylor,  loc.  cit.,  p.  60. 

8  See  Bayard  Taylor's  second  view,  loc.  cit.,  p.  109;  J.  S.  Hittell'a 

History  of  ;^nn  Francisco,  p.  146. 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.     381 

tween  the  steep  hills  and  the  bay,  with  all  its  tents  and 
its  rude  warehouses  and  its  flimsy  gambling  palaces  set 
down  at  random,  the  "  water  coming  up  to  Montgomery 
Street,"  as  the  old  pioneers  are  never  tired  of  telling 
one,^  and  the  vast  fleet  of  sea-worn  vessels  lying  beyond, 
and  idly  rotting  in  the  bay,  —  this  strange  picture  will 
never  be  forgotten.  But  within  the  town  itself  the  scene, 
upon  the  approach  of  winter,  was  yet  further  confused 
by  the  great  rains,  of  1849-50;  by  the  miserable,  un- 
improved streets,  full  of  fathomless  mixed  sand  and  clay 
mud  ;  and  by  the  increasing  crowds  of  idlers,  whom  the 
rainy  weather  brought  back  to  the  town  from  the  inte- 
rior. To  a  new-comer  the  San  Franciscans  at  this  mo- 
ment, living  in  their  rag  palaces,  or  renting  them  at 
figures  that  would  have  sounded  possible  in  the  Ara- 
bian Nights,  and  doing  all  this  even  while  the  mining 
industry  itself  was  suspended  by  the  rains,  and  while  the 
source  of  all  the  wealth  was  thus  temporarily  cut  off, 
seemed  more  like  madmen  than  ever.  A  correspond- 
ent of  the  "  New  York  Evening  Post,"  under  date  of 
November  15,  1849,  gives  with  a  half-serious  fury  and 
contempt  an  amusing  account  of  the  landlords  of  San 
Francisco  at  this  moment  '.^  — 

"  The  people  of  San  Francisco  are  mad,  stark  mad. 
...  A  dozen  times  or  more,  during  the  last  few  weeks, 
I  have  been  taken  by  the  arm  by  some  of  the  millionr 
naires  —  so  they  call  themselves,  I  call  them  madmen  — 
of  San  Francisco,  looking  wondrously  dirty  and  out  at 

1  Montgomerj'  Street,  at  that  time  running  along  the  edge  of  Yerba 
Buena  cove,  towards  its  northern  end,  was  erelong  separated  from  the 
bay  by  the  filling  in  of  the  whole  cove,  and  is  now  a  number  of  blocks 
from  the  water. 

2  I  find  the  letter  quoted  in  the  National  Intelligencer  of  January 
3,  1850. 


382  CALIFORNIA. 

elbows  for  men  of  such  magnificent  pretensions.  They 
have  dragged  me  about,  through  the  mud  and  filth  al- 
most up  to  my  middle,  from  one  pine  box  to  another, 
called  mansion,  hotel,  bank,  or  store,  as  it  may  please 
the  imagination,  and  have  told  me,  with  a  sincerity  that 
would  have  done  credit  to  the  Bedlamite,  that  these 
splendid  .  .  .  structures  were  theirs,  and  they,  the  for- 
tunate proprietors,  were  worth  from  two  to  three  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars  a  year  each.  .  .  .  There  must  be 
nearly  two  thousand  houses  besides  the  tents,  which  are 
still  spread  m  numbers.  .  .  .  And  what  do  you  sup- 
pose to  be  the  rental,  the  yearly  value,  of  this  card- 
house  city  ?  Not  less,  it  is  said,  than  twelve  millions  of 
dollars,  and  this  with  a  population  of  about  twelve  thou- 
sand. New  York,  with  its  five  hundred  thousand  inhab- 
itants, does  not  give  a  rental  of  much  more  than  this,  if 
as  much." 

In  fact,  these  rag-palace  owners  no  doubt  were  mod- 
erately insane,  not  so  much  in  their  estimate  of  the 
wealth  of  the  new  land  as  in  their  tacit  assumption  that 
rags  would  not  burn.  And  accordingly  in  December, 
1849-r'there  came  the  first  great  San  Francisco  fire, 
which  burned  a  million  dollars'  worth  of  the  rags  and 
of  the  wealth  that  had  been  stored  in  the  houses  made 
of  them.  Nobody  ventured  to  mourn  very  long  over 
this  disaster  ;  and  very  soon  the  burned  district  stood 
rebuilt,  in  the  full  glory  of  wooden  bandboxes  that 
were  to  be  rented  once  more  at  the  rates  that  would 
have  befitted  kings'  houses.  The  4th  of  May,  1850, 
saw,  however,  the  second  great  fire,  which  was  much 
more  disastrous  than  the  first  to  the  business  interests 
of  the  place,  since  it  affected  less  the  gamblers,  and 
more  the  warehouses  of  the  merchants,  than  the  first  fire 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.    383 

had  done,  and  since  withal  it  destroyed  three  millions 
instead  of  one  million  of  property.  A  third  fire,  of 
which  much  the  same  may  be  said,  took  place  June  1 4th. 
Rags  were  thenceforth  prohibited  ^  within  the  fire  limits 
of  the  town ;  which  resolved  to  be  staid  and  sober  there- 
after, and  to  use  as  building  material  nothing  more 
combustible  than  kindling-wood.  The  hiUs  of  San 
Mateo  County,  to  the  southward,  were,  accordingly,  yet 
more  rapidly  stripped  of  their  fine  redwood  trees,  and 
the  city  nailed  together  the  light  boards  more  busily 
than  ever,  and  grew  with  vast  rapidity.  September  17, 
1850^  was  indeed  marked  by  another  serious  fire,  but 
not  one  of  enormous  size.  And,  indeed,  not  until  May 
4,  1851,  the  anniversary  of  the  second  fire,  did  the  citi- 
zens find  fresh  and  sufficient  reason  to  repent  of  their 
conduct. 

Meanwhile,  during  1850,  both  the  domestic  business  of 
the  State  and  the  commerce  by  sea  came  to  get  a  more 
rational  character.  The  Eastern  merchants  grew  some- 
what accustomed  to  their  California  trade,  and  began, 
before  the  end  of  1850,  to  build  their  famous  swift  clip- 
per-ships to  supply  it ;  and,  of  course,  their  plans  now 
included  sufficient  wages  to  attract  and  to  hold  trustwor-  j 
thy  crews  for  voyages  to  the  waters  of  the  golden  land.  J 
Thus  the  San  Francisco  market  soon  came  to  get  a  bet- 
ter and  more  steady  supply  of  what  was  needed.  The 
land,  which  had,  so  far,  to  import  from  distant  places 
nearly  everything,  including  breadstuffs,  potatoes,  and 
butter,  had  suffered  already  terribly  from  the  wild  fluc- 
tuations of  prices  that  had  characterized  its  San  Fran- 
cisco markets,  and  that,  of  course,  had  resulted  from 
the  lack  of  any  definite  source  or  method  of  supply. 
1  J.  S.  Hittell,  op.  dt.,  p.  157. 


884  CALIFORNIA. 

The  ships  had  brought  as  cargoes  everything  and  any- 
thing, in  the  wildest  confusion,  and  amid  the  utmost 
general  ignorance  of  shippers  both  about  what  Califor- 
nia needed  and  about  the  storage  of  goods  for  such  long 
voyages.  Cargoes  of  coal,  for  instance,  were  sent  from 
Baltimore  in  bulk,  and  without  proper  means  for  venti- 
lating the  holds  during  the  long  voyage  around  the 
Horn.  Many  such  cargoes  consequently  took  fire  and 
were  lost.^  Preserved  articles  of  food  were  sent  that 
on  arrival  proved  to  be  tainted  and  worthless.  Whole 
houses  —  some  of  wood,  others  of  corrugated  iron—' 
were  shipped  in  pieces,  and  were  in  some  cases  service- 
able, but  were  also  often  worthless.  Elaborate  gold- 
washing  machines  came,  which  might  be  adequate  to 
every  possible  sort  of  investigation  of  mud  save  such  an 
investigation  as  would  show  whether  there  was  any  gold 
in  it,  but  which  never  showed  that.  Of  the  things  ac- 
tually and  seriously  needed  in  California  there  might  at 
one  moment  come  twenty  times  too  much,  and  shortly 
thereafter  there  might  be  nothing  at  all  of  the  kind 
needed  discoverable  in  the  market.^  To  all  this  confu- 
sion the  clipper-ships,  making  swift  and  regular,  though 
of  course  still  far  too  long,  voyages,  could  not  put  an 

1  See  Mrs.  Bates's  account,  in  her  Four  Years  on  the  Pacific  Coast, 
Boston,  1858,  of  her  voyage  to  California.  She  was  three  times  ia 
succession  in  coal-carrying  vessels,  all  of  which  were  burned.  She 
escaped  each  time  quite  safely,  and  reached  her  goal  at  last,  a  little 
nervous,  of  course,  about  coal  as  an  article  of  commerce. 

2  According  to  the  Post  correspondent,  above  cited,  bread  had,  in 
November,  1849,  risen  from  twenty-five  to  fifty  cents  a  loaf,  the  price 
being  for  a  small  loaf,  not  much  larger  than  a  breakfast-roll.  All 
business  at  that  moment,  as  he  declares,  is  pure  gambling ;  so  that, 
whether  one  is  in  the  gambling  places  or  out  of  them,  one  finds  the 
whole  town  a  vast  gambling  hell.  One  often  pays,  in  fact,  ten  per 
eent.  a  month  for  money. 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.    385 

entire  stop ;  but  they  improved  the  state  of  things  very- 
much,  as  merchants  could  correspond  with  Eastern  ship- 
pers by  steamer,  and  then  be  sure  of  getting  their  in- 
voices in  some  fairly  determinate  time  by  means  of  the 
clippers.  The  clippers  erelong  rejoiced  in  large  size, 
in  fine  outlines,  in  poetical  names,  in  wonderful  records 
for  speed,  and  all  through  the  years  before  the  war  they 
were  the  glory  of  our  American  commerce.  Long 
since,  as  we  know,  they  have  vanished  from  the  seas.^ 

The  year  1851  brought  its  further  great  material 
changes  to  San  Francisco.  Foremost  in  importance 
was  the  fire  of  May  4,  which  destroyed,  at  the  very 
least  estimate,  some  seven  millions  of  dollars'  worth  of 
property,^  and  was  thence  called  "  the  great  fire." 
The  account  given  of  the  causes  that  conspired  to  make 
it  so  great  is,  as  one  finds  the  tale  in  the  "  Alta  "  (loc. 
cit.),  worthy  of  note.  The  chief  engineer,  with  num- 
bers of  firemen,  was  away,  that  fatal  night  between 
May  3d  and  4th,  at  Sacramento.  There  was,  just  then, 
a  kind  of  interregnum  between  two  city  councils  —  the 
old  one  having  adjourned,  and  the  new  not  having  been 
sworn  in ;  therefore  nobody  felt  empowered  to  order 
the  tearing  down  of  buildings  to  check  the  flames. 
Some  of  the  engines  lacked  hose ;  all  of  them  lacked! 

1  The  commercial  life  of  San  Francisco,  from  this  early  period 
down  to  the  completion  of  the  Pacific  railroad,  was  characterized  by 
the  institution  known  as  "steamer-day,"  i.  e.,  the  day  preceding  the 
departure  of  each  Panama  steamer.  On  this  day  collections  were 
made,  correspondence  with  the  East  prepared,  and  an  enormous  mass 
of  business  done  in  connection  with  the  importing  trade.  The  special 
"steamer  editions  "  of  the  papers  were  prepared  on  these  days. 

2  See  J.  S.  Hittell,  op.  cit.,  p.  168,  whose  estimate  is  founded  on  that 
of  the  Alta  of  the  date  of  the  fire,  known  to  me  in  the  steamer  edition 
of  May  15.  The  Alta  editor  was,  however,  himself  disposed  to  think 
this  estimate  too  low. 

25 


CALIFORNIA. 

water.  The  wind  was  high.  Among  the  spectators 
"  there  was  generally  a  great  want  of  concentrated  ef- 
fort." In  short,  as  one  sees,  the  whole  affair  was  a 
perfect  expression  of  the  civilization  of  the  moment. 
Sixteen  entire  squares  of  houses  were  consumed,  with 
parts  of  several  others,  and  several  lives  were  lost. 
The  municipality  of  this  mushroom  place,  as  one  may 
remark,  was  at  that  moment  in  debt,  for  the  expenses 
of  the  city  government,  over  one  million  of  dollars ; 
and  this  calamity  of  the  great  fire  was  surely  a  fitting 
work  for  such  a  municipal  organization  to  accomplish 
over  night.^ 

"-  The  great  fire  was  met  with  the  same  general  and 
heroic  good-humor  that  had  always  been  shown  before. 
There  were,  of  course,  men  who  were  utterly  crushed 
and  crazed  by  it.  But  the  community  as  a  whole  was 
soon  as  cheery  as  ever,  and  at  least  a  trifle  wiser  than 
before ;  not  so  much  in  its  immediately  following  con- 
duct as  in  its  plans  for  the  future.  The  "  Alta  "  of  that 
date  begs  the  city  authorities  not  to  pass  at  once  any 
ordinance  restricting  or  forbidding  the  building  of 
frame  houses  within  fire  limits,  since  such  a  measure  at 
that  moment  would  drive  away  too  many  who  are  now 
hesitating  whether  to  risk  another  trial  of  their  fortune 
in  the  city.  Everybody,  says  the  editor,  is  now  con- 
vinced of  the  need  of  fireproof  buildings.  Let  the 
merchants,  however,  build  temporary  sheds  on  their 
lots  at  once,  and  begin  business  afresh.  Then  they 
will  soon  be  able  to  build  better  structures.  And,  in 
fact,  the  commercial  part  of  the  city  was  erelong  much 
better  built,  and  the  portion  of  the  city  that  had  suf- 

1  See  the  AnnaU,  p.  328,  for  the  city  debt,  and  p.  329  for  the  fire. 
The  Annals  make  the  loss  from  ten  to  twelve  millions  of  dollars. 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.     387 

fered  from  the  greatest  of  the  fires  remained  thence- 
forth comparatively  free  from  such  calamities. 
V  But  higher  up  the  hill-side,  and  among  the  dwellings 
of  the  town,  the  last  of  the  great  fires  was  still  to  do  its 
work.  On  Sunday,  June  22,  1851,  the  "Alta"  news- 
paper opened  the  day  with  a  fine  editorial  on  the  de- 
lights and  the  duty  of  a  truly  religious  Sabbath  rest. 
It  added,  indeed,  to  this  editorial  the  announcement 
in  its  local  columns  that  this  same  Sabbath  evening 
there  would  be  presented  at  the  Jenny  Lind  theatre 
(a  famous  place  of  amusement,  which  had  been  built  on 
the  site  of  the  old  Parker  House)  "three  laughable 
farces,"  namely,  "  The  Widow's  Victim  "  and  two  oth- 
ers, together  with  "  dancing  by  Senorita  Abalos."  At 
half-past  ten  o'clock  that  morning  an  alarm  of  fire  was 
sounded  at  the  corner  of  Pacific  and  Powell  streets, 
just  as  the  church  bells  were  tolling.  People  on  their 
way  to  church,  as  well  as  the  idlers  of  Sunday  morning, 
were  soon  in  crowds  about  the  fire.  But  there  was 
little  to  be  done  to  check  it.  The  city  had  still  no 
proper  or  adequate  water  supply;  a  few  "reservoirs" 
there  indeed  were,  lower  down,  in  the  now  nearly  re- 
built business  portion  of  the  city,  where  the  May  fire 
had  raged,  but  here,  among  the  dwelling-houses,  there 
was  no  water,  and  the  little  one  and  two  story  buildings 
burned,  says  the  "Alta,"  like  shavings.  The  genial 
summer  sea-breeze  of  San  Francisco,  which  usually 
amuses  itself  with  merely  filling  one's  eyes  with  sand, 
had  now  something  better  than  sand  to  drive  before  it, 
and  quickly  warmed  to  its  savage  work.  In  a  little 
time  it  had  become  a  gale.  The  fire-engines  came,  but, 
since  they  had  little  or  no  water,  they  could  only  stand 
by  as  silent  exponents  of  the  city's  ojBficial  disapproval 


888  CALIFORNIA. 

of  fires.  People  tried  to  check  the  flames  by  tearing 
down  the  little  houses  that  stood  in  the  track ;  but,  as 
we  know,  one  can  more  easily  burn  an  old  box  than  tear 
<t  to  pieces,  and  the  nails  were  the  only  sound  part  of 
these  houses.  Hence  the  fire  soon  drove  off  the  defend- 
ers. By  the  time  the  office  of  the  "  Alta "  itself  was 
reached,  on  Washington  Street,  the  presence  at  that 
point  of  a  good  private  fii'e-engine  and  of  plenty  of 
water  in  a  tank,  and  even  the  blowing  up  with  powder 
joi  the  adjoining  building,  did  not  save  the  "  Alta " 
\  building,  with  the  types  and  the  presses,  from  total  de- 
!  struction.  About  the  Plaza  the  flames  raged  fiercely. 
Three  or  four  men  lost  their  lives  in  the  course  of  the 
day.  A  very  sick  man  was  saved  from  his  burning 
lodgings  by  his  friends,  and  carried  on  his  bed  into  the 
middle  of  the  Plaza  for  safety ;  and  there,  amid  the 
burning  heat,  the  cinders,  and  the  bitter  smoke,  he 
died,  his  body  lying  in  plain  sight,  among  the  crowds 
and  the  heaps  of  goods,  during  the  day.  These  heaps 
of  goods  themselves  several  times  caught  fire  as  they 
lay.  The  "  old  adobe  "  on  the  Plaza,  of  which  we  shall 
hear  in  another  connection,  was  destroyed.  It  was  the 
last  remaining  relic  of  the  old  village  of  Yerba  Buena. 
The  city  hospital  was  also  burned,  the  ninety  patients 
then  in  it  being  safely  removed  for  the  moment  to  a 
vacant  lot. 

Seiiorita  Abalos  did  not  dance  on  the  stage  of  the 
Jenny  Lind  theatre  that  Sunday  night,  nor  did  people 
laugh  at  the  "  Widow's  Victim  "  and  the  other  laugh- 
able farces.  For  the  Jenny  Lind  theatre  was  once  more 
a  heap  of  hot  ashes,  and,  on  the  hills  above  the  town, 
hundreds  or  even  thousands  of  homeless  wretches  shiv- 
ered, amid  the  chaparral  bushes,   over  whatever  rem- 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.    389 

nants  of  their  little  store  of  household  goods  or  of  treas- 
ure they  had  be^en  able  to  save. 

The  fire  of  June  22  was  emphatically  a  poor  man's  N 
fire.  The  great  fire  of  May  4th  had  burned  the  busi- 
ness part  of  the  city,  and  had  destroyed  vast  wealth. 
But  this  last  fire  burned  chiefly  the  houses  of  people 
who  had  little  else  but  their  houses  to  lose.  The  total 
loss  was  indeed  not  above  three  millions  of  dollars, 
some  ten  squares  of  these  board  hovels  being  totally  de- 
stroyed, with  parts  of  several  other  squares.  But  the 
immediate  suffering  was  possibly  very  nearly  as  great  as 
that  caused  by  the  fire  of  May  4th.  "  Thousands  of  peo- 
ple," says  the  "  Alta  "  next  day,  "  are  homeless.  We  are 
sick  with  what  we  have  seen  and  felt,  and  need  not  say 
any  more."  The  "  Alta  "  itself  was  printed  that  next 
morning  on  borrowed  presses  and  from  borrowed  types 
set  up  in  the  office  of  one  of  its  fellow-newspapers.  Its 
page  had  shriveled  from  seven  columns  to  five,  and  the 
columns  were  some  five  inches  shorter  than  on  the  pre- 
vious day. 

Thenceforth,  as  we  learn  from  the  "  Annals,"  *  "  many 
of  the  buildings  "  showed  "  a  wonderful  improvement  in 
strength  and  grandeur."  An  improvement  in  "  grand- 
eur," above  that  shown  in  a  board  hovel,  meant,  in  the 
business  part  of  the  city,  the  building  of  substantial  and 
generally  very  modest  and  useful  brick  buildings,  sup- 
plied with  double  iron  shutters  and  with  large  tanks  of 
water.  These  same  buildings  still  in  a  great  number  of 
cases  remain  in  use.  On  its  old  site  the  Jenny  Lind 
theatre  was  rebuilt,  and  during  the  next  year  was  sold 
to  the  city  for  an  exorbitant  price,  and  converted  into 
the  city  hall,  which  still  remains  on  the  Plaza,  al- 
1  Page  345. 


390  CALIFORNIA. 

though  the  new  city  hall,  far  out  on  Market  Street,  has 
in  recent  years  superseded  it  as  the  municipal  headquar- 
ters. 

Outside  of  the  business  part  of  the  city,  wooden 
houses  have,  however,  always  remained  the  favorites  of 
the  San  Franciscan.  One  prefers  them  in  view  of  the 
character  of  the  climate  ;  and  one  trusts,  with  a  now 
well-founded  confidence,  in  the  energy  and  ability  of 
the  large  and  efficient  fire  department  of  the  city  as 
one's  security  against  all  fires.  In  the  early  years,  als(^, 
and  long  before  the  modern  paid  fire  department  was 
organized  or  thought  of,  the  lessons  of  these  great  fires 
were  well  taken  to  heart,  from  the  middle  of  1851  on, 
and  the  fire  organizations  of  San  Francisco  were  always 
strong  and  devoted.^ 

These,  then,  were  the  great  transformations  that  the 
city  underwent  by  reason  of  the  early  fires.  In  another 
and  more  healthful  way,  also,  the  city  meanwhile  trans- 
formed the  appearance  of  its  most  important  parts  by 
rapidly  carrying  on  the  work  of  extending  its  water-front 
towards  deep  water,  through  the  filling  in  of  the  old 
Yerba  Buena  cove.  This  was  done  by  carrying  sand 
over  temporary  tracks,  in  cars  drawn  by  small  engines. 
The  busy  water-front  of  1851,  with  its  numerous  long 
wharves  extending  far  out  into  the  cove,  with  its  hurry- 
ing crowds  in  which  all  nationalities  were  still  repre- 
sented, and  with  its  steam-cars  occasionally  rushing  reck- 
lessly by,  transporting  their  loads  of  sand,  presented  a 
scene  far  different  from  that  of  the  confused  heaps  of 
merchandise  and  the  cloth-houses  of  1849 ;  but  it  was 
still  a  characteristic  early  Californian  scene.  From  the 
**  Happy  Valley,"  which  lay  to  the  south,  t?.e  railway 
1  See  the  enthusiastic  chapter  in  the  AnnaU,  p.  614,  sqq. 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.    391 

track,  in  July,  1851,  ran  along  Market  and  Battery- 
streets,  transporting  the  sand  to  the  rapidly  filling  water- 
lots.^  Towards  the  end  of  that  month,  an  accident  hav- 
ing occurred,  whereby  a  man  was  run  over  by  the  cars, 
losing  his  leg,  an  ordinance  was  proposed  in  the  board 
of  aldermen  "  to  restrict  the  speed  of  the  cars  to  six 
miles  an  hour."  This  restriction,  however,  would  not 
have  been  enough  of  itself  to  check  the  evil ;  for  when, 
July  30,  a  man  was  killed  by  the  same  cars,  on  Mar- 
ket Street,  the  coroner's  jury  found  that  the  accident 
might  have  been  prevented,  "if  the  car  in  front  of 
the  man  conducting  it  had  not  been  loaded  higher  than 
his  head,  thus  preventing  him  from  seeing  the  track."  ^ 
One's  load,  carried  in  front  of  one,  was  usually  higher 
than  one's  head,  in  California  in  those  days,  and  one 
seldom  saw  the  track  ahead,  whatever  might  be  one's 
business.  Hence  the  disasters,  individual  and  social,  of 
the  early  days.  But,  amid  all  the  confusion,  the  prog- 
ress towards  physical  stability,  towards  sound  buildings, 
good  and  safe  docks  for  ships,  well-organized  fire  de- 
partments, and  comparatively  clean  and  decent  streets, 
was  sure.  One  great  physical  evil  remains  to  be  men- 
tioned as  explaining  many  social  evils.  In  the  early 
years  the  streets,  like  those  of  London  in  the  last  cen- 
tury, were^  save  very  near  the  Plaza,  wholly  unlighted  at 
night.* 

n.    THE   MORAL   INSANITIES    OF   THE    GOLDEN   DAYS. 

We  pass  from  physical  to  social  conditions.  Society, 
in  these  years,  was  affected  first  of  all  by  certain  obvi- 
ous and  general  mental  disturbances  of  individual  lives, — 

1  Alta  of  July  19,  1851.  2  JUa  of  July  31,  1851. 

«  Alta  of  July  19,  1851. 


392  CALIFORNIA. 

disturbances  that  had  a  decidedly  pathological  character. 
Most  of  the  citizens  were  young  men,  and  homeless. 
Their  daily  and  most  sober  business  was  at  best  danger- 
ously near  gambling,  and  their  nerves  were  constantly 
tormented  by  unnatural  and  yet  for  the  time  inevitable 
excitements,  of  a  perilously  violent  sort.  They  differed, 
moreover,  from  the  miners,  in  that  their  life  was  as  a 
rule  comparatively  sedentary,  and  in  that  they  worked 
far  more  with  their  brains  than  with  their  hands. 
Hence  these  nervous  excitements  told  upon  them  all 
the  more  seriously.  Their  problems,  too,  were  far  more 
complex  and  brain-wearying  than  those  of  the  miners. 
The  miner  was  apt  to  degenerate  for  lack  of  healthful 
mental  exercise  of  any  sort.  As  he  was  often  a  clever 
and  educated  man,  he  found  his  hard  manual  labor  in- 
tolerable ;  and  at  night  he  drank  or  gambled  for  the 
sake  of  forgetting  the  inanity  of  his  toil.  But  the  San 
Franciscan  of  property  and  position  was  differently  be- 
set. He  had  all  the  mental  labor  that  a  man  could 
need,  and  much  more  besides,  and  he  had  little  or  no 
true  relaxation.  Able  and  cultivated  business  men, 
who  at  home  would  have  passed  their  evenings  with  their 
families,  or  in  some  other  pleasant  social  intercourse,  or 
perchance  in  lecture  rooms  or  in  theatres,  here  toiled 
every  night  until  ten  or  eleven  o'clock  over  their  ac- 
counts, and  began  afresh  on  each  new  morning,  as  soon 
as  the  light  shone  over  the  far-off  blue  summit  of  Mount 
Diablo,  the  old  fierce  struggle  with  the  confusions  of 
their  business  undertakings.  The  self  -  absorption  of 
this  life  was  often  something  monstrous,  and  the  con- 
sequences are  no  matter  of  mere  theory.  The  insane 
asylum,  which  the  State  had  very  early  to  equip  at 
Stockton,  gave  ample  proof  of  the  effects  of  this  terrible 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO. 

nervous  strain.  The  great  number  of  patients  at  this 
asylum  made  a  frequent  subject  of  remark  among  the 
early  writers  about  California.^  Indirectly,  however, 
one  sees  the  same  dangers  illustrated  even  in  the  case  of 
perfectly  healthy  and  normal  men,  who  stood  the  men- 
tal if  not  the  moral  strain  as  well  as  possible,  and  liked 
it.  The  life  between  1849  and  1852  or  1853  has  often 
seemed  to  such  men,  as  they  have  looked  back  on  it, 
like  a  wild  dream.  Even  in  so  early  a  book  as  the 
"Annals,"  published  in  1855,  and  in  part  written  in 
1854,  one  finds  the  life  of  1849  and  1850  regarded  in 
this  same  dream-like  and  unsubstantial  fashion.  One  col- 
lected, indeed,  for  this  book,  any  number  of  trustworthy 
data  from  the  newspapers;  but  one  often  commented 
upon  them  in  the  most  confused  and  forgetful  fashion  pos- 
sible. These  things  seemed  to  the  author  of  the  "  An- 
nals "  to  have  taken  place  ages  ago.  In  the  old  home 
the  young  girl  graduate  of  1849  might,  in  1854,  have 
been  quietly  preparing  for  her  early  wedding,  and  for  the 
very  beginning  of  her  life.  But  in  California,  as  the 
"  Annals  "  show  us,  these  young  men  of  1854  already 
talked  of  the  days  of  1849  as  they  might  of  a  romantic 
and  almost  forgotten  ancient  history.^  And  a  delirious 
history  it  indeed  became,  for  the  authors  of  the  "  An- 
nals," as  soon  as  the  writers  left  their  newspaper  rec- 
ords, and  began  to  repeat  their  memories,  or  the  hearsay 
evidence  of  others.  One  can  remember,  as  these  men 
tell  us,  all  sorts  of  confused  emotions,  but,  as  we  judge 
from  their  wild  and  whirling  words,  one  can  remember 

1  See,  for  example,  the  remarks  of  the  well-known  pioneer  "  street- 
preacher,"  "Father"  Taylor,  in  his  California  Life  Illustrated,  p, 
133.    He  gives  official  statistics.    The  asylum  was  founded  in  1852. 

2  Annals,  p.  217,  p.  665,  et  passim. 


394  CALIFORNIA. 

nothing  rational.  Everybody,  for  instance,  used  to  gam- 
ble :  so  one  seems  to  remember.  And  gambling  in  the 
big  saloons,  under  the  strangely  brilliant  lamp-light, 
amid  the  wild  music,  the  odd  people,  the  sounding  gold, 
used  to  be  such  a  rapturous  and  fearful  thing !  One 
cannot  express  this  old  rapture  at  all !  Judges  and  cler- 
gymen used  to  elbow  their  way,  so  one  remembers,  to 
the  tables,  and  used  to  play  with  the  rest.  The  men  in 
San  Francisco  who  did  not  thus  gamble  were  too  few  to 
be  noticed.  If  you  condemn  this  gambling,  so  the  his- 
torian continues,  that  is  because  you  do  not  know  the 
glorious  rapture  aforesaid,  the  rapture  of  gambling  in  a 
place  where  gambling  is  the  only  perfectly  respectable 
amusement.  But  one's  memory  does  indeed  reach  be- 
yond this  respectable  amusement ;  and  is  equal  to  the 
description  of  decidedly  worse  things,  in  which  of  course 
everybody  was  also  engaged  !  There  were  some  women 
in  the  city  in  1849,  but  they  were  not  exactly  respecta- 
ble persons,  yet  they  were  the  sole  leaders  of  society. 
They  too  gave  it  even  in  later  years  a  certain  grace  and 
gayety  that  makes  one  speak  of  them,  with  a  curious 
sort  of  reverence,  very  frequently  in  the  course  of  the 
"  Annals."  ^  Just  as  one  cannot  easily  remember  who 
the  men  were  that  did  not  gamble  in  those  days,  so  one 
fails  to  recall  in  looking  back  on  the  early  years  the 

1  See  p.  259,  p.  368  (where  these  persons  are  spoken  of  in  a  curi- 
ously close  connection  with  the  ''upper  classes"),  p.  503  (where  San 
Franciscans  are  declared  to  be  of  the  "conscientious"  opinion,  that, 
"after  all,  their  wild  and  pleasant  life  is  not  so  ver}',  very  wrong," 
and  where  the  general  degeneracy  of  the  women  in  the  city  is  reaf- 
firmed), p.  504,  p.  507  (''the  trains  of  lovely  women"),  et  passim. 
The  especial  merit  of  a  book  previously  cited,  Grey's  Pioneer  Times 
in  California,  is  that  it  points  out  these  absurdities  in  the  Annals,  aU 
though,  in  doing  so,  the  book  itself  makes  various  inaccurate  state- 
wants. 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.    395 

women  who  were  respectable.  Doubtless  such  existed ; 
but  then  they  had  that  curious  quality  of  respectable 
women,  namely,  they  were  somehow  not  conspicuous, 
especially  in  the  public  crowds.  Hence,  as  the  authors 
of  the  "  Annals "  seem,  for  some  probably  sufficient 
reason,  to  have  been  personally  unable,  in  early  days, 
to  secure  the  honor  of  their  acquaintance,  the  existence 
of  these  good  women  fails  to  become  a  matter  of  histori- 
cal record  in  the  reminiscences  with  which  so  much  of 
the  confused  volume  is  filled.^ 

TNow,  however,  side  by  side  with  these  wild  memories 
of  a  society  where  every  man  and  woman,  without  any 
notable  exception,  went  to  the  devil  on  his  or  her  own 
chosen  primrose  pathy  one  has  to  record,  as  sober  fact, 
taken  from  one's  newspapers,  such  things  as  a  very 
goodly  array  of  pioneer  churches,  supported  by  active 
and  not  poverty-stricken  societies.  And  "  now "  (in 
1854),  "  the  city  is  full  of  [church]  societies."  ^  In 
fact,  "  such  an  array  of  churches  and  societies  are  surely 
evidences  enough  of  the  sincerity,  zeal,  and  success  of 
the  early  spirit  of  moral  reform." '  These  societies 
have  also  done  a  large  amount  of  charitable  work  ;  they 
have  from  the  first  established  benevolent  institutions, 
their  exercises  are  well  attended,  and  their  undertak- 
ings weU  supported  with  money,  so  that,  as  one  con- 
cludes (p.  701)  :  "  We  have  said  enough,  we  hope,  to 
prove  that  not  all,  nor  nigh  all  the  citizens  of  San  Fran- 
cisco, are  lost  to  everything  but  reckless  dissipation. 
No  city  of  equal  size  —  few  of  ten  times  its  age  —  can 
present  such  a  list  of  men  and  institutions,  who  have 
accomplished  so  much  real  good  with  so  little  of  cant 
and  hypocrisy." 

1  Page  697.  2  Pages  699,  700. 


396  CALIFORNIA. 

These  significant  contradictions  sufficiently  character- 
ize the  spirit  in  which  the  annalists  wrote  their  big  book. 
San    Francisco  was   to  them  a  mere  rubbish-heap  of 
broken  facts,  and  they  had  no  conception  of  the  sense 
of  it.     But  their  mood  as  writers  depends,  as  we  have 
just  asserted,  partly  upon  the  pathological  conditions 
connected  with  this  life.     Long-continued  and  unnatural 
excitement  had  disturbed  their  judgments.     They  were 
still  very  active  and  laborious  men,  and  the  immense 
collection  of  facts  that  they  made  for  their  book,  from 
the  early  newspapers,  will  always  remain  a  monument 
of  industry.     But,  so  far  as  their  own  past  experiences 
were  concerned,  the  excitements  of  the  early  years  had 
made  them  simply  incapable  of  telling  any  straight  or 
coherent  story  about  these  years.     And,  as  one  may  re- 
mark, the  same  infirmity  has  beset  a  good  many  San 
Francisco   pioneers  ever  since.     The  cool-headed  man, 
who  did  not  make  a  fool  of  himself  with  absurd  dissi- 
pations,   nor  destroy  his  health  with  continuous  over- 
strain in  making  haste  to  be  rich,  can  indeed  give  you 
helpful  information  about  the  early  life,  and  such  infor- 
mation we  have  frequently  used  in  the  pages  of  this 
book.     But  the  boastful  and  reckless  old  pioneer  who 
imagines  himself  to  have  seen  all  the  heights  and  depths 
of  the  early  life,  who  knows  more  about  it,  in  conse- 
quence, than  human  speech  can  express,  —  he,  when  he 
begins  to  tell  you  of  it,  is  commonly  simply  incoherent. 
He  boasts  on  occasion,  and  with  equal  earnestness,  of 
the  piety  and  of  the  viciousness,  of  the  gayety  and  of 
the  seriousness,  of  the  brutality  and  of  the  peacefulness 
of  the  early  days.     Any  chance  number  of  an  early 
newspaper  would  tell  you  more  about  the  pioneer  com* 
munity  than  he  will  tell  in  a  month. 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.     397 

The  prevalence  of  over-excitement,  then,  is  perfectly 
evident.  And  the  dissipations  of  the  town  were,  in  a 
large  part  of  their  extravagances  and  bad  consequences, 
the  obvious  result  and  expression  of  this  purely  physical  . 
nervous  overstrain.  Just  how  many  previously  respec-  y 
table  and  sober  men  went  to  the  devil  in  the  gambling 
halls,  or  with  the  help  of  the  fast  women,  can  never  be 
known.  They  were  undoubtedly  far  too  numerous. 
The  universal  demoralization  of  which  the  authors  of 
the  "  Annals  "  dream  is,  however,  just  as  undoubted  an 
absurdity.  No  such  thing  took  place.  The  dissipation  \ 
was,  of  course,  always  showy ;  it  burned  much  midnight  \ 
oil ;  and,  in  a  city  that  had  no  street-lamps,  and  few  \ 
police,  it  was  free  to  make  itself  very  visible  in  the  j 
darkness  of  every  night.  And  when  some  one  supposed 
to  have  been  at  home  a  clergyman,  or  when  a  locally 
well-known  lawyer,  or  a  prominent  merchant,  joined 
the  young  fools  about  a  gaming-table,  and  also  went  to 
the  devil,  one  may  be  sure  that  the  most  drunken  eyes 
saw  the  fact,  and  that  the  most  delirious  memory  pre- 
served it,  to  the  exclusion  of  many  less  exciting  and 
more  important  social  truths.  The  undoubted  reckless- 
ness of  the  society  as  a  whole  lay,  however,  not  in  the 
fact  that  everybody  openly  gambled,  or  did  worse ;  for 
not  everybody  was  dissipated ;  but  the  true  sin  of  the 
community  did  consist  in  its  tolerance  of  the  open  vices 
of  those  who  chose  to  be  vicious.  Truly  respectable 
men,  whether  clergymen  or  not,  did  not  elbow  their  way 
to  the  gaming-tables ;  but  public  opinion,  for  reasons 
that  have  often  ere  this  appeared  in  these  pages,  was  not 
stern  enough  towards  social  offenses,  but  believed  in  a 
sort  of  irreligious  liberty,  that  considered  every  man's 
vices,  however  offensive  and  aggressive  they  might  b^ 


398  CALIFORNIA. 

(short  of  crime),  as  a  private  concern  between  his  own 
soul  and  Satan.  Here  was  the  trouble,  and  in  this  re- 
spect only  was  the  whole  San  Franciscan  community 
alike  responsible  both  for  the  early  dissipations,  and  for 
their  inevitable  consequences. 

As  to  the  actual  extent  of  this  mischief  among  indi- 
viduals, the  numbers  of  those  engaged  in  the  wilder 
dissipations  cannot  be  estimated ;  yet  it  may  well  be 
doubted  whether  they  at  any  time  formed  more  than  a 
comparatively  small  fraction  of  the  American  inhabit- 
ants. We  are,  after  all,  a  persistently  serious  people  in 
the  matter  of  social  amusements.  And  in  San  Fran- 
cisco we  had  a  great  deal  of  business  to  do  ;  and  we  did 
it.  It  took  up  nearly  all  of  our  time.  The  nervous 
overstrain  of  this  business  showed  itself  in  many  other 
forms  besides  the  tendency  to  be  dissipated,  and  the  fast 
men  and  women  were,  as  even  the  annalists  once  or 
twice  admit,  after  all  but  the  froth  on  the  turbid  cur- 
rent 

m.     CONSERVATISM,   CHURCHES,   AND   FAMILIES. 

But  now  for  some  of  the  more  conservative  forces. 
These  one  finds  in  three  very  well-known  and  common- 
place forms,  namely,  in  the  family,  in  the  school,  and  in 
the  church,  all  of  which  soon  appear  in  San  Francisco 
in  their  ordinary  American  dress,  though  just  a  trifle 
altered  by  the  social  disturbances  of  the  place  and  the 
time. 

The  not  very  trustworthy  state  census  of  1852  showed 
a  population  in  the  whole  State  of  264,435.  Of  these, 
to  judge  from  the  very  rough  estimates  made,  very 
nearly  four  fifths  were  American  citizens,  and  of  those 
again  the  great  majority  were,  of  course,  by  birth  Ameiv 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.    399 

icans.  About  one  ninth  or  one  tenth  of  the  whole  were 
women,  and  about  one  tenth  children.^  San  Francisco, 
like  all  the  other  towns  of  the  State,  was  subject  to  great 
fluctuations  of  population,  but  may  be  supposed  in  the 
early  years  to  have  contained,  on  the  average,  about  one 
eighth  of  the  population  of  the  State,  which  again,  be- 
tween 1852  and  1856,  may  have  increased  from  fifty  to 
eighty  per  cent.  The  proportion  of  women  and  children 
in  the  city  was  always  greater  than  the  proportion  in 
the  State  at  large,  in  case  the  southern  portion  is  left 
out  of  account. 

On  May  2,  1853,  at  a  Mayday  celebration,  there  was 
in  San  Francisco  a  procession  of  school  children  to  cel- 
ebrate the  occasion.^  About  one  thousand  children  were 
in  the  train.  Each  one  carried  flowers  ;  and  the  sight 
was  a  pleasant  one  for  San  Franciscans,  although  it  was 
by  no  means  the  first  time  that  homeless  men  had  been 
reminded  of  the  presence  of  happy  homes  in  their 
midst.  There  had  been,  as  we  remember,  families  and 
children  even  in  Yerba  Buena,  and  the  gold  excitement 
had  not  killed  them.  A  certain  pioneer  absurdity,  for- 
merly frequently  repeated,  which  tells  how,  at  a  time 
during  the  early  golden  days,  there  was  just  One  Lady 
in  San  Francisco,  and  she  a  new-comer,  who  was  rev- 
erently, silently,  and  sentimentally  worshiped  by  the 
vast,  rude,  and  drunken  throngs  about  her,  must,  of 
course,  be  dismissed  to  oblivion,  along  with  that  other 

1  Compare  Tuthill,  p.  357 ;  Annals,  p.  505 ;  and  the  official  sammaty 
of  the  census,  reported  hy  the  secretary  of  state  to  the  governor,  in 
January,  1853.  With  this  summary  of  the  census  of  1852  that  pub- 
lished as  an  appendix  to  the  United  States  census  returns  of  the  Sev- 
enth National  Census  does  not  quite  agree,  and  the  details  are  plain> 
ly  much  confused  in  the  returns. 

2  See  Annals,  p.  447.    May  1  came  that  year  on  Sunday. 


400  CALIFORNIA. 

scandalous  assertion  that  in  the  early  days  there  were 
710  ladies  in  San  Francisco  at  all.  In  fact,  there  were 
several  good  women  at  the  outset,  and  many  later. 

These  good  women  and  children  needed  churches  and 
schools,  while  good  husbands  and  fathers  joined  in  the 
wish.  In  September,  1849,  when  the  street-preacher, 
itiie  strong-hearted  "Father"  Taylor,  entered  the  har- 
bor on  board  a  crowded  vessel  from  the  Atlantic  coast, 
he  heard,  indeed,  from  a  man  who  came  out  to  the  ship 
before  they  landed,  strange  and  boastful  stories  about 
^e  jolly  degeneracy  of  the  place.  But  he  failed,  on 
landing,  to  verify  in  all  respects  these  tales.  The  in- 
formant declared  the  gamblers  to  be  the  aristocracy  ^  of 
San  Francisco.  As  for  religion,  there  had  indeed  been 
a  church,  but  that  had  been  turned  into  a  jail,  he  be- 
lieved ;  at  all  events  he  knew  of  only  one  preacher  of  re- 
cent standing  in  town  ;  but  that  one  was  now  a  gambler.* 
The  good  Taylor  found,  however,  upon  landing,  that 
what  he  humorously  calls  this  informant's  "  ecclesiastical 
history  "  was,  on  the  whole,  false.  The  old  school-house 
on  the  Plaza,  once  used  for  religious  meetings,  was  in- 
deed now  a  jail ;  but  there  were  other  places  of  worship. 
Taylor  had,  indeed,  a  little  trouble  in  finding  Methodists. 
He  at  last  found  that  "  Brother  White,"  who  lived  "  in 
the  woods"  (that  is,  among   the  dwarf   oaks  and  the 

1  William  Taylor's  California  Life  Illustrated  (New  York,  1858), 
p.  16. 

2  With  such  stories  the  early  Californians  of  a  certain  sort  amused 
themselves  continuall}'.  Little  dependence  can  be  placed  in  any  such 
gossip,  whether  about  San  Francisco  or  about  any  other  place.  The 
New  York  Evening  Post  correspondent,  above  cited,  had  heard  of  a 
Methodist  parson  who  was  now  a  bar-tender.  As  a  fact,  the  early 
California  clergymen  were  on  the  whole  very  remarkably  faithful,  in- 
telligent, laborious,  and  devout.  One  would  have  suffered  sadly  with, 
out  them. 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.      401    ^ 

shrubbery),  on  Washington  Street  near  Powell,  had  a 
little  cloth  and  board  house  where  he  held  Methodist 
"  class-meetings "  and  prayer-meetings "  on  Sundays, 
with  a  "  class  "  of  twenty.  Taylor  himself  set  to  work 
busily  to  prepare  a  church  for  his  denomination.  Eeso-  v ' 
lutely  he  crossed  the  Bay,  toiled  in  the  redwoods  behind 
San  Antonio  creek,  cut  and  hewed  his  own  lumber,  and 
then,  carrying  it  to  San  Francisco,  helped  build  his  own 
place  of  worship.     It  was  ready  by  October  8,  1849. 

But  this  remarkably  energetic  fashion  of  preparing 
the  way  of  the  Lord,  and  of  laying  the  axe  at  the  root 
of  the  tree,  did  not,  after  all,  result  in  building  the  first 
San  Francisco  church.  That  first  one  was  Rev.  O.  C. 
Wheeler's  Baptist  church,  built  in  the  summer  of  1849, 
before  Taylor's  arrival.  And  already  in  that  summer 
and  autumn  there  existed  several  other  church  organ- 
izations in  San  Francisco,^  namely,  Rev.  T.  Dwight 
Hunt's  pioneer  union  organization,  formed  in  1848, 
Rev.  Albert  Williams's  "  First  Presbyterian  Church,'* 
which  for  some  time  dwelt  in  tents,  and  Rev.  Dr.  Ver 
Mehr's  Episcopal  organization,  which  had  its  beginnings 
in  this  first  autumn.  The  Mission  church  had  to  suf- 
fice for  Catholic  communicants  until  1851,  when  the 
first  Catholic  church  appeared  in  the  town  proper. 

The  early  relations  of  the  Protestant  pioneer  pastors 
with  one  another  were  of  the  most  cordial  character. 
And  their  little  groups  of  communicants  were  both  ear- 
nest and  active.  Out  of  this  pastoral  fellowship  and 
this  devotion  of  the  laymen  sprang  the  numerous  early 
church  charities  that  the  Annalists  mention.*'^     As  for 

1  See  more  details  in  the  records  given  in  the  Annals,  p.  687,  sqq. 

2  See  also  Rev.  Albert  Williams,  Pioneer  Pastorate  and  Times  (Saa 
Francisco,  1879)  p.  63,  sq. 

26 


402  CALIFORNIA. 

the  place  that  these  churches  occupied  in  the  commu- 
nity, there  can  be  no  doubt  that,  however  the  numbers 
in  the  early  churches  might  compare  with  those  in  the 
gambling  saloons,  the  spirit  of  the  new  community  was 
at  least  as  well  represented  by  the  former  as  by  the 
latter.  For  if  the  saloons  represented  its  diseases,  these 
stood  for  its  health.  "  Father  "  Taylor  delights  to  tell 
how  the  most  aggressive  of  his  street-preaching  under- 
takings always  received,  if  not  active  support,  then  at 
least  quietly  friendly  sufferance  from  the  gamblers  that 
he  was  attacking.  There  was  from  the  first  the  charac- 
teristic American  feeling  prevalent  that  churches  were  a 
good  and  sober  element  in  the  social  order,  and  that  one 
wanted  them  to  prosper,  whether  one  took  a  private  and 
personal  interest  in  any  of  them  or  not.  The  religious 
coldness  of  a  large  number  who  at  home  would  have 
seemed  to  be  devout  did  not  make  the  progress  of  the 
churches  in  California  less  sure,  nor  their  value  as  so- 
cially conservative  forces  less  generally  recognized. 

Rev.  Albert  Williams  mentions,  in  a  passage  of  the 
book  just  cited,^  the  delight  of  being  able  to  address 
the  vigorous  young  men  of  early  San  Francisco.  The 
San  Franciscans,  when  they  went  to  church  at  all,  were, 
he  declares,  uncommonly  inspiring  audiences,  because 
they  were  so  manly,  attentive,  and  intelligent.  In  the 
manuscript  that  I  have  previously  cited,  as  furnished  to 
me  from  diary  and  recollection  by  my  mother,  I  find, 
amid  numerous  other  reflections  on  the  early  social  con- 
ditions (reflections  that  have  throughout  much  influenced 
my  comments),  an  account  of  the  first  time  when  she 
herself  attended  church  in  San  Francisco,  in  the  early 
months  of  1850.  The  journey  across  the  "  plains,"  and 
1  Paffe  141. 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION   IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.     403 

a  few  troubled  months  in  the  mines  and  at  Sacramento, 
had  led  my  fatlier,  after  the  great  flood  at  the  latter 
place,  to  come  with  my  mother  and  her  child  to  the 
Bay.  The  building  where  she  thus  first  attended  church 
services  she  found  larger  than  she  had  expected,  and. 
well  filled,  although  she  saw  but  six  or  eight  women 
present.  What  especially  aroused  her  interest  in  the 
audience  was  this  splendid  group  of  ardent,  young, 
thoughtful,  and  manly  faces,  all  so  full  of  deep  and  rev- 
erent attention  to  the  services.  The  thing  was  no  com- 
monplace affair  to  them.  It  meant  home-like  and  relig- 
ious associations,  aroused  thus  afresh  in  their  minds  in 
the  midst  of  a  sordid  and  weary  land.  She  saw  in  their 
countenances  an  "  intensity  of  earnestness  "  that  made 
her  involuntarily  "  thank  God  for  making  so  grand  a 
being  as  man."  It  seems  worth  while  thus  to  add  to 
the  possibly  biased  statement  of  the  pioneer  preacher 
this  impression  that  was  received  at  her  first  church- 
attendance  in  San  Francisco  by  my  mother,  as  a  mere 
listener  and  a  stranger. 

This  use  of  my  mother's  manuscript  leads  me  to  pais" 
from  the  topic  of  the  churches  to  record  a  few  of  her 
impressions  of  the  early  social  and  family  life  of  San 
Francisco,  as  seen  from  the  point  of  view  of  a  dweller 
within  doors.  She  passed  a  considerable  time  in  1850 
in  a  little  circle  of  San  Francisco  families  that  were  held 
together  mainly  by  those  ties  of  social  and  religious 
sympathy  that  might  be  supposed  most  effective  at  such 
a  moment,  and  in  the  midst  of  such  exciting  conditions. 
Of  the  outer  world  she  had,  of  course,  to  see  and  to  hear 
a  great  deal ;  and  her  account  of  this  is  much  what  one 
might  expect  from  what  one  otherwise  knows,  save  that 
she  had  occasion  to  hear  of  some  particular  instances 


404  CALIFORNIA. 

of  great  business  undertakings,  speculations,  and  fail- 
ures, that  it  might  be  amusing  to  recount  in  these  pages 
if  there  were  only  left  space.  But  one  must  pass  to  so- 
cial life  proper. 

Every  one  has  heard  how,  in  early  San  Francisco 
life,  the  family  ties  seemed  sometimes  almost  as  weak 
as  the  families  were  rare.  Divorces  were  in  proportion 
far  too  numerous  and  easy.  Some  men  seemed  to  prize 
',  their  wives  the  less  because  of  the  very  fact  that  there 
were  in  the  country  so  few  wives  to  prize.  Of  aU  this 
the  early  papers  make  frequent  complaint,  and  the  early 
travelers  frequent  mention,  although  the  facts  are  also 
often  much  exaggerated.  The  causes,  however,  of  this 
too  general  disrespect  for  the  most  significant  relations 
of  life,  my  mother  seemed  to  see  as  rather  deejj-lying. 
In  the  new  land,  namely,  to  speak  of  the  matter  first 
from  the  side  of  the  women  concerned  themselves,  one's 
acquaintances  could  not  always  be  strictly  chosen,  nor 
one's  conduct  absolutely  determined  by  arbitrary  rules. 
One  had  to  adapt  one's  self  to  many  people,  to  tolerate, 
in  some  people  with  whom  one  was  thrown,  many  oddi- 
ties, and  much  independence,  so  long  as  the  essentials 
of  good  behavior  and  good  purposes  remained.  The 
difficulty,  however,  for  certain  well-meaning  but  foolish 
among  the  younger  women,  who  found  themselves  in 
the  midst  of  all  this  new  life,  was  to  sacrifice  some  of 
the  non-essentials  of  social  intercourse,  as  they  knew 
them,  without  sacrificing  anything  either  of  their  own 
personal  dignity,  or  of  their  true  delicacy  of  feeling. 
Many  such  women  failed  to  solve  the  problem.  Little 
by  little  they  sacrificed  this  or  that  petty  prejudice, 
which  dignity  would  have  counseled  them  to  observe ; 
Bud  so  erelong  they  were  socially  more  or  less  distinctly 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.    405 

and  disastrously  careless,  both  as  to  behavior  and  as  to 
companionship.  But  such  mild  degeneration  is  not  an 
element  of  strength  in  the  union  of  a  family.  Men 
often  prized  their  wives  less  because  the  wives  grew 
thus  foolishly  light-hearted,  and  were,  on  the  whole,  less 
to  be  prized.  Nor  was  there  a  lack  of  fault  on  the 
other  side.  If  women  fell  into  these  unguarded  habits, 
such  as  the  custom  of  letting  men  who  chanced  to  be 
their  friends,  and  chanced  to  be  lucky,  give  them,  with 
careless  Californian  generosity,  expensive  presents  on 
every  occasion  when  these  friends  had  made  some  new 
success  in  business,  and  if  such  "  Californian  "  ways, 
however  innocent  in  their  beginning,  led  to  misunder- 
standings in  the  end  :  still,  on  the  other  hand,  husbands 
who  found  themselves  absorbed  in  business  rivalry  with 
a  community  of  irresponsible  bachelors,  and  who  accord- 
ingly lamented  the  hostages  that  they  themselves  had 
long  since  given  to  fortune,  often  neglected  without 
reason  their  families,  and  so  in  time  lost  the  affection 
that  they  had  ceased  to  deserve.  In  short,  as  my 
mother  (who,  in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  had  occasion 
to  hear  of  or  to  see  a  number  of  these  broken  California 
families)  judged  the  too  general  trouble,  it  was  one  that 
might  be  said  to  lie  in  the  lonesomeness  of  the  families 
of  a  new  land.  The  family  grows  best  in  a  garden  with 
its  kind.  Where  family-life  does  not  involve  healthy 
friendships  with  other  families,  it  is  apt  to  be  injured 
by  unhealthy  if  well-meaning  friendships  with  wander- 
ers. The  lonesome  man,  far  away  from  home,  seeking 
in  all  innocence  of  heart  the  kindly  and  elevating  com- 
panionship of  some  good  woman,  the  good-humored 
young  woman,  enjoying  in  all  her  innocence  also  the 
flattery  and  the  exaggerated  respect  of  a  community  of 


406  CALIFORNIA. 

bachelors,  the  foolish  husband,  feehng  his  wife  more  or 
less  a  burden,  in  a  country  where  so  few  of  his  friends 
and  of  his  rivals  have  such  burdens  to  hamper  them ; 
such  are  the  too  familiar  figures  of  social  life  in  a  new 
land.  From  their  relationships  spring  the  curious  un- 
happinesses  that  at  length  come  to  mar  the  lives  of  so 
many  good,  easy  souls.  Add  to  the  picture  the  figure 
of  the  bachelor-friend  aforesaid,  venturing  not  only  to 
flatter,  but,  in  his  rudely  courteous  or  in  his  more  gently 
diffident  manner,  to  comfort  the  neglected  wife,  with 
honest  words,  and  with  kindly  services  ;  and  one  sees 
how  much  in  danger,  under  such  circumstances,  may  be 
the  true  interests  of  all  family-life.  If  one  wants  a  high 
average  of  domestic  peace  and  of  moral  health,  he  must 
not  look  for  it  too  hopefully  in  the  domestic  lives  of 
the  most  among  those  who  ought  to  prize  one  another 
highest,  namely,  wedded  companions,  in  very  new  coun- 
tries. These  people  may  indeed  be  wise,  and  find  all 
that  you  could  wish  for  in  the  way  of  true  happiness ; 
but  too  many  of  them  will  be  seen  to  be  blind  to  the 
worth  of  their  privileges,  just  because  these  happen,  at 
that  place  and  time,  to  be  so  rare.  Such  then  was  my 
mother's  general  observation.  But  she  saw  many  cases 
indeed  of  people  who  were  sensible  enough  to  know 
when  they  were  happy,  and  to  live  in  the  best  of  do- 
mestic relations.  Such  families  were,  in  their  place,  the 
salvation  of  this  restless  and  suffering  social  order. 
For  about  them  clustered  the  hopes  for  the  future  of 
society.  In  them  were  reared  the  better-trained  chil- 
dren. In  them  careless  wanderers  saw  the  constant  re- 
minders of  the  old  home.  To  increase  their  numbers, 
to  quiet  their  fears,  to  satisfy  their  demands,  men  were 
willing  to  make  vast  sacrifices.     It  was  indeed  largely 


SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.    407 

in  the  hope  of  seeing  erelong  many  such  families  flock- 
ing to  the  State,  that  those  men  who  felt  their  own  in- 
terests in  the  country  to  be  fairly  permanent  were  will- 
ing to  toil  for  order  in  the  arduous  fashions  exemplified 
by  the  great  vigilance  committees. 

IV.    POPULAR    JUSTICE    IN    FEBRUARY,    1851. 

Not  the  same  judgment,  by  any  means,  can  be  passed 
upon  the  San  Francisco  vigilance  committees  of  1851 
and  1856  as  we  have  already  passed  upon  the  popular 
justice  of  the  miners.  In  some  respects,  to  be  sure, 
there  is  an  unfortunate  likeness.  Both  in  the  mines  \ 
and  in  San  Francisco  carelessness  had  led  to  a  destruc- 
tive general  license  of  mischief-makers.  In  both  places 
the  men  of  sense  were  forced  at  last  to  attend  to  their 
social  duties.  But  in  the  mines  there  was,  for  a  while, 
a  far  too  general,  a  very  absurd  and  wicked  trust  in 
lynch  law  as  the  best  expression,  under  the  circum- 
stances, of  the  popular  hatred  of  crime.  San  Francisco, 
as  a  community,  never  went  so  far  as  this.  In  that 
city  lynch  law  was,  both  in  1851  and  in  1856,  the  ex- 
pression of  a  pressing  desire  so  to  reform  the  social 
order  that  lynch  law  should  no  longer  be  necessary. 
What  the  success  of  these  efforts  was,  we  have  to  see 
from  the  facts. 

The  condition  of  society  that  so  weU  expressed  itself 
in  the  fire  of  May  4,  1851,  had,  nearly  three  months 
earlier,  led  to  the  first  of  the  greater  outbursts  of  popu- 
lar indignation  at  crime,^  that  of  February,  1851.     On' 

1  The  affair  of  the  "Hounds,"  in  1849,  generally  mentioned  as  the 
first  important  case  of  popular  justice  in  San  Francisco,  is  a  typical 
illustration  of  the  short  and  easy  methods  of  the  early  golden  days, 
but  it  is  otherwise  comparatively  insignificant.  A  company  of  j'oung 
rascals,  having  paraded  the  streets  on  a  number  of  occasions,  under 


408  CALIFORNIA. 

the  19th  of  February  a  merchant  named  Jansen  was 
assaulted  and  robbed  in  his  own  shop  by  two  men,  who 
(carae  in  the  evening,  pretending  to  be  customers.  The 
'crime,  though  not  the  first  or  the  worst  of  its  sort, 
I  seemed  especially  atrocious  to  the  community,  which 
(^chanced  to  be  in  a  sensitive  mood.  The  "  Alta,"  usu- 
ally, in  those  days,  a  very  sober  and  sensible  paper,  be- 
came for  the  moment  a  trifle  over-excited.  Nobody, 
says  the  editor,  a  day  or  two  later,  is  secure,  even  in  his 
own  dwelling.  And  the  ruffians,  if  arrested  at  all,  are 
never  punished.  "  How  many  murders  have  been  com- 
mitted in  this  city  within  a  year !  And  who  has  been 
hung  or  punished  for  the  crime  ?  Nobody.  How  many 
men  shot  and  stabbed,  knocked  down  and  bruised  ;  and 
who  has  been  punished  for  it  ?  How  many  thefts  and 
arsons,  robberies,  and  crimes  of  a  less  note  ;  and  where 
are  the  perpetrators  ?  Gentlemen  at  large,  citizens,  free 
to  reenact  their  outrages."  Under  these  circumstances, 
however,  who  is  to  blame  ?  The  "  Alta,"  with  an  amus- 
ing unwisdom,  proceeds  to  make  the  lawyers  who  defend 
criminals  the  first  persons  responsible  for  the  trouble. 
Such  a  lawyer  is  a  "  father  to  the  thief  and  robber,  aye, 
to  the  murderer,  even."  "  We  cannot  see  how  any  hon- 
est man,  knowing  or  having  reason  to  believe  another 
I  guilty,  can  ransack  heaven  and  earth  for  arguments  for 
I  shielding  him  from  punishment."     Next  to  the  lawyers, 

the  name  of  the  "  Hounds  "  and  under  the  pretense  of  being  a  society 
for  mutual  protection,  made  at  last  their  long  tolerated  disorderly 
behavior  intolerable.  They  began  violent  assaults  on  the  Chilians 
present  in  the  town,  and  were  promptly  suppressed.  Their  leaders 
were  tried  and  convicted  by  a  popular  court,  wherein  two  judges  (of 
whom  Gwin,  then  just  arrived,  was  one)  were  appointed  by  the  peo- 
ple, "to  assist  the  alcalde."  The  prisoners  were  then  sentenced  to 
i?ong  terms  of  imprisonment,  which,  of  course,  were  never  inflicted 
upon  them.    See  Annals,  p.  552,  sqq. 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.    409 

the  courts  and  the  police  are  most  to  blame.  "  The 
city  would  be  infinitely  better  off  without  them.  They 
are  no  terror  to  evil-doers."  And  so,  finally :  "  We 
deprecate  lynch  law,  but  the  outraged  public,"  etc.,  etc. 

Under  these  circumstances,  the  news  that  two  men 
had  been  arrested  as  the  perpetrators  of  this  assault 
aroused  the  people  to  righteous  indignation  and  to  elo- 
quence. One  of  these  two  men  was  soon  said  to  be  a  cer- 
tain rogue  named  Stuart,  and  notorious  in  the  mines.  On 
the  21st,  the  two  men  arrested  were  confronted  with 
the  wounded  Jansen.  The  supposed  Stuart  he  was  said 
to  have  recognized  at  once  as  one  of  his  assailants,  and 
he  had  only  a  little  doubt  about  the  other  prisoner. 
Accordingly  when,  on  Saturday,  the  22d,  the  two  were 
to  be  brought  up  before  the  court  in  the  city  hall,  for 
preliminary  examination,  the  people^  collected,  grew 
more  and  more  excited,  read  copies  of  a  well-written 
and  rather  foolish  hand-bill  (which  called  upon  all  good 
citizens  to  assemble  on  Sunday,  at  two  o'clock,  on  the 
Plaza,  for  the  sake  of  somehow  ridding  the  community 
of  its  robbers  and  murderers),  and  so  at  last,  with  a 
shout,  "  Now  's  the  time,"  rushed  towards  and  into  the 
recorder's  court  room,  in  order  to  seize  the  prisoners.^ 
But  a  company  of  militia,  the  "  Washington  Guards," 
which  had  been  called  out,  and  was  now  on  parade, 
ready  to  defend  the  officers  of  the  law,  entered  the 
court-room  just  after  the  first  of  the  mob  had  rushed 
in,  cleared  the  room  with  fixed  bayonets,  and  so  saved 
the  prisoners,  who  were  then  imprisoned  in  the  not  very 
secure   basement  of   the   city  hall.     The    guards    thus 

1  ^*  The  people,  in  the  highest  sense  of  the  term,"  declare  the 
authors  of  the  Annals  (p.  315),  and  "  not  a  mob." 

2  Weekly  Alta  for  March  1,  1851. 


410  CALIFORNIA. 

earned  many  hoots  and  hisses,  insomuch  that  the  way- 
ward and  still  wholly  disorganized  crowd  followed  them 
home  to  their  armory,  challenged  them  to  a  fight,  and 
were  with  difficulty  persuaded  at  last  to  disperse. 
About  dusk  that  evening,  a  more  sensible  and  dignified 
public  meeting  took  place  near  the  city  hall,  and  was 
/  addressed  by  several  speakers,  among  them  Mr.  Sam 
(  .grannan,  the  lion-hearted,  a  man  always  in  love  witK 
shedding  the  blood  of  the  wicked.  A  committee  of 
prominent  citizens,  of  whom  he  was  one,  was  appointed 
by  the  public  meeting  to  consider  the  situation,  and  also 
to  assist  the  police  in  guarding  the  accused  over  night ; 
and  this  committee's  proceedings,  after  the  greater 
meeting  had  adjourned,  were  also  reported  in  the  "  Alta" 
of  the  next  day.  Mr.  Brannan  begged  his  fellow-mem- 
bers to  take  the  chance  now  so  kindly  given  them  by 
fortune,  and  to  try  the  prisoners  themselves  forthwith. 
He  was  tired  of  the  law.  He  was  "  much  surprised  to 
hear  people  talk  about  grand  juries,  or  recorders  or 
mayors."  He  was  "  opposed  to  any  farce  in  this  busi- 
ness." Mr.  Brannan's  less  enthusiastic  fellows  on  the 
committee  overruled  him  as  to  these  somewhat  immoral 
proposals  ;  but  they  too  were  not  free  from  excitement. 
Even  the  moderate  and  cautious  Mr.  Macondray,  a  prom- 
inent merchant,  and  one  of  the  committee,  declared  that 
no  court  would  dare  to  discharge  these  men  ;  no  lawyer 
would  dare  to  plead  their  cause.  But  he  very  sensibly 
pointed  out  that  a  committee  appointed  by  the  sovereign 
people  to  guard  prisoners  could  not  well  turn  itself  into 
a  jury,  and  try  them. 

Now,  however,  one  serious  defect  and  danger  about 
all  this  ardent  and  sincere  popular  indignation  against 
the  two   prisoners   lay  in  the  fact  that  the  supposed 


SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FE  AN  CISCO.     411 

Stuart  was  really  quite  an  innocent  man,  whose  nam9 
was  Burdue.  He  had  been  mistaken  for  the  true  as- 
sailant by  poor  Jansen,  who  was  lying  very  seriously  \ 
hurt  with  a  concussion  of  the  brain.  The  resemblance  i 
of  the  accused  to  the  real  criminal  Stuart  was  indeed 
remarkable  ;  but  there  were  people  in  San  Francisco 
who  could  on  occasion  identify  the  accused  as  an  inno- 
cent man,  unless  indeed  the  popular  indignation  at  crime 
should  forbid  for  the  moment  all  defense  of  any  sup- 
posed criminals. 

Fortunately,  however,  the  general  sentiment  of  the 
wiser  men  of  San  Francisco  favored  giving  the  two  ac- 
cused a  fair  chance.  And  therefore,  when  on  the  next 
day  the  people  assembled  once  more,  a  no  less  stern  but 
much  more  sensible  spirit  prevailed  than  on  the  previous 
morning.  Mr.  Wm.  T.  Coleman,  later  so  noted  in  coil- 
nection  with  both  the  great  Vigilance  Committees,  came 
forward  with  a  motion  to  appoint  a  committee  to  agree 
upon  a  plan  of  action,  and  this  committee,  having  been 
chosen,  reported  that  a  judge  and  jury  should  be  named, 
who  should  try  the  criminals  at  two  o'clock  the  same  day^^ 
This  plan  was  submitted  to  the  people,  and  adopted.^y 
The  jury  was  appointed  by  popular  consent.  Great 
difficulty  was  found  in  getting  a  popular  judge  to  serve ; 
but  at  last  one  Mr.  J.  F.  Spence  was  chosen,  and  two 

^  Not,  however,  until  a  wicked  attempt  had  been  made,  by  four 
members  of  the  committee  of  the  night  before  (i.  e.,  of  the  guard  ap- 
pointed for  watching  the  prisoner),  to  arouse  the  mob  to  immediate 
action  by  means  of  an  incendiary  hand-bill,  signed  by  these  four.  The 
hand-bill  pretended  to  "report"  how  these  four  knew  that  there  was 
no  question  of  the  guilt  of  the  prisoners.  The  paper  was  apparently 
the  work  of  Mr.  Sam  Brannan,  whose  name  was  first  signed  to  it,  the 
other  names  being  Wm-  H.  Jones,  E.  A.  King,  and  J.  B.  Huie.  One 
sees  thus  how  near  the  San  Franciscans  were  led  to  committing  a  bru- 
tal crime,  by  reason  of  the  noisiness  of  hot-headed  and  officious  men. 


412  CALIFORNIA. 

assistant  judges  were  appointed.  The  chief  actors  in 
the  subsequent  trial  were  thus  the  result  of  some  genu- 
ine reflection  and  of  a  careful  choice,  and  the  trial  was 
therefore  saved  from  becoming  what  the  mob  wished  it 
to  be,  —  a  disorderly  mock  trial. 

At  two  o'clock  the  popular  court  was  complete  maa=> 
ter  of  the  situation,  and  met  in  the  district  court  room^ 
Without  any  resistance  from  the  officials  this  time,  the 
prisoners  were  considered  as  subject  to  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  new  tribunal,  although  they  were  not  removed 
from  their  cells.  Two  lawyers,  prominent  through  many 
later  years  in  California  as  attorneys,  consented  to  de- 
fend the  prisoners,  —  Judge  Shattuck  appearing  for  the 
supposed  Stuart,  Mr.  Hall  McAllister  for  the  other ; 
but  counsel  for  the  people  was  harder  to  find,  regular 
attorneys  declining,  very  naturally,  to  serve.  Mr.  Cole- 
man at  length  undertook  the  work.  The  jury  were 
known  men ;  and  to  Mr.  R.  S.  Watson,  their  foreman, 
now  of  Milton,  Mass.,  I  am  indebted  for  a  very  inter- 
esting oral  account  of  the  scene.  Mr.  Watson  himself 
did  not  sympathize  in  any  degree  with  the  extrava- 
gances of  the  mob,  and,  as  we  shall  see,  his  influence 
was  ultimately  used,  with  that  of  others,  to  save  the 
prisoners.  But  the  moment  was  one  when  the  advice 
of  cautious  men  was  especially  needed,  and  one  may  be 
glad  that  such  were  willing  to  serve. 

The  trial  of  the  supposed  Stuart  took  precedence,  and, 
as  we  shall  see,  was  the  only  act  of  the  tribunal.  The 
testimony,  as  the  "  Alta  "  shows,  was  of  two  sorts.  Some 
of  the  witnesses  declared  themselves  able  to  identify  this 
man  as  one  Stuart,  somewhat  notorious  at  Sacramento 
and  in  the  mines  as  a  most  dangerous  character,  and 
several  times  proven  guilty  of  theft  and,  they  said,  of 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.     413 

worse.  The  other  witnesses  knew  only  that  Jansen, 
who  we  remember  was  sujffiering  ever  since  the  assault 
from  concussion  of  the  brain,  had  said  that  this  man 
looked  so  much  like  his  own  assailant  that  there  could 
be  little  doubt  about  the  identity.  Judge  Shattuck  ably 
insisted  upon  the  fact  that,  as  the  defense  was  the  denial 
of  this  man's  identity  with  the  notorious  Stuart,  as  well 
as  with  the  assailant  of  Jansen,  the  cause  of  justice 
would  demand  some  scrutiny  of  the  prisoner's  antece- 
dents and  life.  Time  was  needed  for  this.  And  Judge 
Shattuck  "  had  had  no  time  to  consult  with  the  accused, 
to  ascertain  who  were  his  friends  and  acquaintances,  or 
to  inquire  in  the  case."  ^  Under  these  circumstances, 
with  a  savage  crowd  in  the  court-room  occasionally  in- 
terrupting, and  demanding  the  death  of  the  prisoner. 
Judge  Shattuck  felt  that  his  defense  was  somewhat 
hampered,  and  he  begged  the  jury  to  remember  the  ter- 
rible responsibility  of  their  position.  He  made  some 
effort  to  get  testimony  to  clear  the  prisoner,  but  the  time 
allowed  him  was  too  short,  and,  as  later  appeared,  the 
prisoner's  few  acquaintances,  who,  after  all,  were  not 
exactly  prominent  citizens,  were  afraid  to  risk  facing 
the  popular  tribunal  and  the  mob,  and  were  not  easy 
to  find  that  evening.  Time  wore  away  in  wrangling 
about  the  case ;  the  mob  grew  more  and  more  impa- 
tient, and  the  counsel  for  the  defense  was  frequently 
interrupted,  and  once  or  twice  insulted.  As  Mr.  Wat- 
son tells  me,  he  himself  was  one  of  those  on  the  jury 
most  anxious  to  consider  carefully  the  worth  of  Mr. 
Jansen's  evidence,  and  he  did  not  find  it  satisfying.  For 
the  injured  man,  lying  in  a  stupor,  had  only  been  with 
difficulty  aroused  to  view  the  prisoners.  In  the  room 
1  Alta  of  February  24,  in  the  weekly  of  March  1,  as  cited. 


414  CALIFORNIA. 

had  been,  besides  these  prisoners,  only  poor  Jansen*s 
own  friends.  What  thing  more  natural  than  that,  un- 
der such  circumstances,  the  man  should  reply,  "  Yes," 
when  asked  if  these  strangers  were  the  men  who  had 
hurt  him  ?  When  the  jury  at  last  retired,  this  doubt- 
fulness, and  in  fact  actual  worthlessness,  of  the  testimony 
in  question  was  strongly  insisted  upon  by  the  foreman 
and  two  others,  and,  although  nine  of  the  jury  were 
ready  to  convict,  these  three  held  out  firmly,  through  a 
long  deliberation,  and  after  many  ballotings.  Much 
tumult,  meanwhile,  raged  outside  the  court-room,  and  to 
some  extent  in  it.  The  better  class  of  citizens  were 
urging  the  crowd  to  be  patient ;  while  the  crowd  were 
weary  and  disgusted  to  think  that,  now  the  beautifully 
simple  machinery  of  popular  justice  was  once  set  up,  it 
somehow  would  not  run  smoothly,  but  was  subject  even 
to  delays.  During  this  time  it  was,  and  after  ten  o'clock 
at  night,  that  Mr.  E.  S.  Osgood  ^  learned  that  two  men 
were  accessible,  and  living  down  on  "  Long  Wharf  '* 
(Commercial  Street  wharf),  who  could  swear  to  the  true 
identity  of  the  prisoner,  and  to  his  whereabouts  on  the 
night  of  the  assault.  Before  making  an  effort  to  go 
down  in  the  thick  darkness  to  the  not  very  safe  regions 
of  Long  Wharf,  Mr.  Osgood  came  forward  in  the  court- 
room, announced  his  purpose,  and  begged  the  court  to 
be  willing  to  wait  for  the  new  evidence,  and  to  admit  it 
when  it  should  come.  Some  one  present,  as  Mr.  Os- 
good has  told  me,  called  out,  asking  him  who  he  was  ; 
another  thereupon  shouted  that  this  new-comer  in  court 

1  Now  a  resident  of  Cambridge,  Mass.  I  have  heard  from  him  his 
own  account  also  of  the  following  scene,  which,  with  his  name  men- 
tioned, is  described  more  brief!}'  in  the  Alta  report,  as  cited.  The  two 
accoimts  agree  so  far  as  they  refer  to  the  same  occurrences  at  all. 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.    415 

was  well  known  to  certain  present  as  one  Osgood,  a  re- 
sponsible person  ;  a  third  shouted :  "  No,  I  know  who 
he  is,  one  of  these  scoundrels  that  are  trying  to  get  their 
accomplice  here  off  free  "  —  and  hereupon  some  angry- 
discussion  followed.  Mr.  Osgood  gave  his  name  and  his 
business,  but,  as  the  "  Alta  "  says,  "  the  crowd  refused 
to  hear  any  further  testimony."  Yet  Mr.  Osgood  set 
off  in  the  darkness  to  find  his  witnesses,  and,  after  some 
gloomy  wanderings,  he  was  successful.  With  some 
trouble  he  persuaded  them  to  come  with  him  to  the  court 
from  their  lodgings  on  Long  Wharf.  But  before  the 
return  of  the  three,  the  case  was  for  the  time  ended. 

At  nearly  midnight,  namely,  the  jury  had  returned  to 
court,  and  the  foreman  had  reported  that  they  could 
not  agree.  Mr.  Watson  remembers  well  the  unpleasant 
scene  presented  to  himself  and  his  fellow  jurymen,  with 
the  weary  and  angry  crowd  all  about,  who  began  to  call 
for  the  names  of  the  disagreeing  jurors,  and  to  shout 
"  Hang  them  too."  But  the  scene  was  not  to  last  long^. 
The  good  citizens  present  were  firm,  the  mob  had  di-\ 
minished  by  reason  of  the  lateness  of  the  hour,  the 
leaders  insisted  that  the  sovereign  people,  having  re- 
ferred the  case  to  a  jury,  must  abide  by  its  decision, 
and  the  people  were  at  last  induced  to  disperse.  One 
device  to  pacify  them  seems  to  have  been  a  resort  to 
that  great  medicine  wherewith  the  American  rids  him- 
self of  his  dangerous  social  passions,  just  as  the  Aristo- 
telian spectator  of  tragedy  purges  himself  of  his  "  Pity 
and  Fear."  This  Katharsis  namely  is,  with  the  Amer- 
ican, political  agitation.  When  Mr.  Osgood  returned 
with  his  witnesses,  he  found  some  of  the  recent  heroes 
of  popular  justice  loudly  shouting :  "  Hurrah  for 
Weller.''     An  impromptu  political  meeting  had  in  fact 


416  CALIFORNIA. 

]ust  been  taking  place,  and  all  the  good  citizens  who 
were  still  out  of  bed  were  so  interested  in  this  new  mat- 
ter that  Mr.  Osgood  with  difficulty  learned  from  them 
what  had  become  of  the  prisoner.  At  last  he  heard  that 
the  popular  tribunal  had  adjourned  sine  die,  and  that 
the  prisoners  had  been  left  with  the  authorities  for  triaL 
And  thus  happily  ended  an  affair  in  which  the  citizens 
of  San  Francisco  had  shown  some  of  their  worst  as  well 
as  some  of  their  best  traits.  A  volunteer  night  patrol, 
organized  by  the  merchants,  thenceforth  for  a  time  aided 
the  police  force  of  the  city,  which  was  all  this  time  small, 
poorly  trained,  generally  neglected,  and  ill-paid,  getting 
its  wages  in  depreciated  city  scrip. 

But  the  great  year  of  the  popular  tribunals  was  as  yet 
only  begun.  The  newspapers  might  hope  that  the  city 
would  escape  the  curse  of  popular  justice,  but  the  tem- 
per of  the  public  made  such  escape  impossible.  One 
thing,  however,  was  secured  by  the  February  outbreak : 
the  public  would  be  sure  in  time  to  learn  from  it  the 
proper  lesson  as  to  the  dangers  of  mere  mob  law.  The 
supposed  Stuart  was  some  months  later  shown  to  be  a 
rather  weak,  but,  as  to  legal  offenses,  an  innocent  man. 
For  the  moment  he  escaped  from  San  Francisco,  only 
to  fall  a  little  later  once  more  into  trouble,  in  the  inte- 
rior, by  reason  of  his  singular  resemblance  to  the  re- 
doubtable Stuart.  From  this  trouble  also  he  was  re- 
leased through  evidence  produced  by  the  very  San 
Franciscans  who  had  been  so  near  hanging  him  in  Feb- 
ruary. The  other  prisoner  accused  of  the  assault  on 
s  Jansen  was  later  convicted,  and  sentenced  to  the  peni- 
!  tentiary,  by  a  regular  court.  But  he  also  was  still  later 
,  shown  to  be  innocent,  and  was  finally  released.  For 
the  time,  however,  the  mass  of  the  citizens  could  not 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.    417 

know  how  criminal  might  have  proven  the  hasty  meth- 
ods of  the  22d  and  the  23d  of  February.  When  the 
committee  of  June  was  formed,  with  such  men  as  the 
late  foreman  of  the  jury  of  February  23d  in  prominent 
places  upon  it,  there  was,  however,  a  very  decided  effort 
made  from  the  first  to  avoid  every  appearance  of  dis- 
order. That  the  committee  was  needed  at  all  resulted, 
as  said,  from  the  temper  of  the  public  mind,  which,  with- 
out some  serious  lesson  in  the  troublesome  work  of  pop- 
ular justice,  could  not  have  been  induced  to  forsake  in 
any  wise  its  over-confidence  and  its  carelessness. 

V.     THE    FIRST   VIGILANCE    COMMITTEE. 

We  study,  in  this  book,  the  incidents  that  exhibit  the 
popular  character  and  the  play  of  social  forces,  rather 
than  those  that  have  only  an  adventurous  interest.  The 
first  Vigilance  Committee  is  rich  in  dramatic  situations, 
but,  after  its  first  formation,  its  history  shows  little 
further  that  is  novel  in  the  way  of  socially  important 
undertakings.  Upon  its  early  moments  alone  we  shall 
dwell.  Absolutely  necessary,  in  order  to  distinguish  it 
from  the  more  disorderly  and  transient  committees 
the  mines,  would  be,  of  course,  a  careful  and  sober  organ- 
ization. This  is  got,  at  the  outset  of  its  work,  in  June. 
What  followed  vindicated  the  good  sense  of  the  organi- 
zation, but  throws  little  new  light  on  the  ethics  of  popu- 
lar justice. 

The  fire  of  May  4th  had  rendered  the  public  more 
sensitive,  discontented  and  suspicious  than  ever ;  but  a 
genuine  popular  reform  had  uot  yet  taken  place.  Re- 
forms must  have  something  to  date  from,  and  two  or 
three  minor  popular  excitements,  produced  by  attempts 
at  arson  or  by  other  crimes,  were  not  sufficient  for  the 
27 


it  L 


418  CALIFORNIA. 

purpose.  On  Sunday,  June  8,  a  very  able  letter  ap- 
peared in  the  "  Alta,''  proposing  the  immediate  forma- 
tion of  a  Committee  of  Safety,  and  suggesting  a  plan  for 
its  operations.  The  plan  as  stated  was  admitted  to  be 
somewhat  undigested,  but  was  probably  so  strongly  ex- 
pressed chiefly  for  the  sake  of  arousing  popular  atten- 
tion. The  usual  complaints  were  made  as  to  the  social 
condition.  The  committee  of  safety  was  to  improve  mat- 
ters by  boarding  in  time  the  vessels  that  arrived  from 
Australia,  and  by  refusing  to  let  any  doubtful  charac- 
ters land  from  them ;  wliile,  as  to  the  ruffians  now  in 
the  city,  ward  committees  of  vigilance  were  arbitrarily 
to  single  them  out  and  to  warn  them  to  leave  the  city 
within  five  days  on  pain  of  a  "  war  of  extermination," 
to  be  prosecuted  against  them.  "  Let  us  set  about  the 
work  at  once.  It  may  be  well  to  call  a  public  meeting 
in  the  square,  to  organize  and  carry  out  these  views. 
Without  this,  or  some  other  similar  plan,  the  evil  can- 
not be  remedied;  and  if  there  is  not  spirit  enough 
amongst  us  to  do  it,  why  then  in  God's  name  let  the 
city  be  burned,  and  our  streets  flow  with  the  blood  of 
murdered  men."  The  letter  was  throughout  very  well 
written.  It  is  remarkable  as  not  referring  directly  and 
openly  to  any  one  case  before  the  public,  and  as  not  get- 
ting its  inspiration  from  any  one  popular  excitement  or 
mob,  and  also  as  coming  from  one  of  the  most  cautious 
and  conscientious  of  the  jury  at  the  recent  trial  of  the 
false  Stuart.^  Some  of  the  writer's  friends  guessed  at 
the  authorship  of   the  letter,  and  at   breakfast  at    his 

1  Namel}',  from  the  pen  of  Mr.  R.  S.  Watson,  who  on  seeing  the 
Alta  of  that  date  in  the  file  that  I  have  used,  now  feels  able  to  iden- 
tify with  absolute  certainty  this  letter  as  the  one  which  be  rememben 
having  written  at  that  time  to  the  press. 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.    419 

restaurant,  Sunday  morning,  he  was  accosted  by  several 
of  them  and  asked  about  the  matter.  The  "  Alta " 
itself  noticed  the  letter  approvingly  ;  and  Mr.  Watson 
had,  as  he  says,  "  touched  a  train  already  laid."  Others 
were  on  the  point  of  a  similar  movement. 

A  few  editorial  and  inspired  articles  in  the  "  Alta," 
on  Monday  and  Tuesday,  are  the  only  public  indica- 
tions, during  those  days,  that  anything  of  importance 
was  going  on  among  the  citizens  interested  in  the  new 
movement.  The  "Alta"  of  Wednesday,  June  11, 
brings  sufficient  evidence,  however,  both  of  the  move- 
ment and  of  its  first  consequences.  The  editor  re- 
marks, that  morning,  that  mobs  are  indeed  of  no  service 
in  suppressing  crime.  But  "  the  next  affair  of  the  kind 
will  be  of  a  different  character,  if  we  are  correctly  in- 
formed in  regard  to  certain  organizations  of  our  citizens, 
which  are  now  and  have  for  several  days  been  progress- 
ing. We  understand  that  quite  a  large  party  banded 
themselves  together  at  the  California  Engine  House  on  a 
Monday  night,  for  the  purpose  of  punishing  incendiaries  / 
and  other  criminals."  The  organization  of  the  commit-  ' 
tee  had  indeed  been  already  provisionally  perfected. 
Mr.  Sam  Brannan,  with  his  wonted  zeal,  had  offered 
them  a  room,  and  his  offer  had  been  accepted.  Two 
taps  on  the  engine-house  bell  were  to  call  the  committee 
together.  The  promptness  of  the  work  of  organization 
showed  how  many  besides  the  anonymous  correspondent, 
of  the  "  Alta  "  had  had  the  thoughts  to  which  he  gave 
such  vigorous  expression.  Prominent  on  the  committee, 
besides  the  two  already  mentioned,  were  Mr.  Wm.  T. 
Coleman,  Mr.  Stephen  Payran,^  Mr.  S.  E.  Woodworth, 
and  many  others. 

1  Although  Mr.  W.  T.  Coleman  is  by  popular  reputation  the  most 


420  CALIFORNIA. 

But,  as  this  same  "  Alta "  of  Wednesday  learned 
even  as  it  was  going  to  press,  the  committee  had  no 
sooner  organized  than  it  had  undertaken  work.  A 
thief,  one  Jenkmsi  a  common  ruffian  of  a  very  low  type, 
iiaidiSeen  Jelectea  Tuesday  evening  in  the  very  act  of 
burglary  on  Long  Wharf,  and,  attempting  to  escape  in 
a  boat,  was  caught  and  brought  back.  At  ten  o'clock 
Tuesday  night  the  members  of  the  committee  were 
called  to  their  first  appointed  headquarters  ^  (near  the 
corner  of  Sansome  and  Bush  streets).  For  two  hours 
the  committee  were  engaged  in  examining  the  case,  and 
at  midnight  Mr.  Sam  Brannan  announced  their  verdict 
to  the  crowd  assembled  outside  the  rooms.  The  crimi- 
nal, he  said,  was  to  be  hanged  in  an  hour  or  two  on  the 
Plaza.  The  execution  took  place  at  two.  An  attempt 
was  made  by  the  police  on  the  Plaza  to  get  Jenkins 
away  from  the  committee,  but  the  effort  was  hopeless, 
and  the  "  old  adobe,"  now  so  near  its  doom,  did  almost 
its  last  public  service,  before  the  June  fire  burned  it 
down,  in  serving,  through  one  of  its  projecting  beams, 
as  a  gallows  to  hang  Jenkins.^ 

prominent  among  the  executive  leaders  of  the  first  committee,  Mr.  W. 
W.  Carpenter,  writing  from  Petaluma,  under  date  of  March  25,  1874, 
to  the  Oakland  Transcript,  and  professing  to  give  something  of  the 
"secret  histon*'"  of  the  committee,  makes  Mr.  Payran  its  " chair- 
man," throughout,  as  well  as  its  greatest  hero.  The  organization  of 
the  committee,  with  a  comparatively  few  leaders  and  a  large  rank  and 
file,  makes  such  questions  about  the  division  of  honors  very  frequent 
in  the  reminiscences  of  various  pioneers.  There  was,  however,  as  to 
personal  credit,  no  true  first  hero  in  this  very  honest  and  active  com- 
pany of  intelligent  and  able  leaders. 

1  In  the  Annals,  p.  570,  erroneously  put  at  the  comer  of  Pine  and 
Battery  streets,  on  this  occasion. 

2  Mr.  Watson  has  given  me  a  very  interesting  account  of  this 
whole  night,  for  which  I  wish  that  I  had  more  space.  The  weather, 
as  appears  both  from  the  AUa  and  from  bis  account,  was  unusually 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.    421 

A  time  of  feverish  public  excitement  followed.  The* 
coroner's  inquest  implicated  certain  people  as  connected; 
with  the  execution  of  Jenkins  ;  but  the  committee,  in  a 
very  dignified  publication,  declared  all  their  members, 
of  whom  a  complete  list  was  given,  equally  implicated, 
and  announced  their  firm  intention  to  work  for  the  pu- 
rification of  the  city.  This  plain  statement  relieved  the 
public  mind.  The  committee  was  no  merely  secret  or- 
ganization ;  and  its  members  were  among  the  best-known? 
men  of  the  city.  It  plainly  expressed  the  general  senti- 
ment. The  question,  why  then  could  not  this  honest 
general  sentiment  have  expressed  itself  before,  in  the 
selection  of  good  and  efficient  officers  ?  —  now  came  too 
late.  Once  for  all,  only  a  glimpse  of  the  terrible  scenes 
of  lynch  law  could  make  this  public  serious.  And  so 
the  committee  was  indeed  a  necessity.  Here,  in  fact,  isv 
one  of  the  heretofore  frequently  mentioned  cases  where  • 
popular  justice  was  not  in  itself  sin,  but  was  the  confes- 
sion of  the  past  sin  of  the  whole  community. 

The  work  during  June,  July,  and  August  was  both  im-^ 
pressive  and  important.  That  it  frightened  the  rogues, 
sent  many  of  them  away,  and  hanged  three  more  be- 
sides Jenkins,  is,  as  the  reader  now  sees,  the  least  of  its 
merits.  More  important  was  the  manifest  sobriety  and 
justice  of  the  methods.  The  committee  caught,  tried, 
and  hanged  the  true  Stuart,  who  made  at  the  last  a  full 
but  untrustworthy  confession.  But  by  doing  this  piece 
of  work  the  committee  accomplished  an  act  of  justice  to 
the  poor  fellow  who  had  been  mistaken  for  Stuart  in 
February.     He,  namely,  was  now  in  jail  in  the  interior, 

clear  for  a  June  night  in  San  Francisco,  and  the  moon  was  very  bril- 
liant. The  popular  excitement  all  night  was  of  the  greatest,  but  ol 
course  the  general  feeling  fully  supported  the  committee. 


422  CALIFORNIA. 

under  sentence  of  death,  all  because  of  another  conse- 
quence of  his  resemblance  to  Stuart.  And  the  com- 
mittee, when  the  truth  had  once  become  known,  made 
every  effort  to  save  him  and  to  set  him  free,  and  suc- 
ceeded. Not  mere  vengeance,  then,  but  justice,  was  the 
obvious  motive  of  its  acts.  In  August  the  committee 
came  nearly  to  an  open  collision  with  the  authorities, 
who,  at  an  unguarded  moment,  rescued  from  the  rooms 
of  the  committee  two  of  its  condemned  criminals,  Whit- 
taker,  and  McKenzie.  The  committee,  however,  some 
days  later,  by  a  skillful  and  effective  surprise,  recap- 
tured these  two,  and  hanged  them  at  once,  all  without 
more  than  the  mere  show  of  violence  towards  the  police. 
Successfully,  then,  the  risk  of  an  open  fight  with  officers 
of  the  law  was  overcome.  But  the  lesson  of  this  was  a 
serious  one.  Popular  justice  in  San  Francisco  would,  it 
was  plain,  involve  fearful  risks  of  an  open  collision  be- 
tween the  officers  and  the  people,  and  would  be  a  great 
waste  of  social  energy.  Why  not  gain  in  future,  through 
devotion  to  the  duties  of  citizenship,  what  one  thus  in 
the  end  would  have  to  struggle  for  in  some  way,  per- 
chance at  the  expense  of  much  blood  ? 

When  the  committee  at  last  ceased  its  activity,  this 
lesson  was  in  everybody's  mind.  That  the  lesson  was 
not  more  permanently  taken  to  heart  by  San  Francis- 
cans is  indeed  unfortunate.  Too  many  of  the  citizens 
still  felt  themselves  wanderers  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 
But  at  all  events  a  good  beginning  had  been  made  in 
righteousness. 

VI.     SOCIAL    CORRUPTION    AND    COMMERCIAL    DISASTER. 

The  years  1852  and  1853,  and  especially  the  latter, 
were  in  San  Francisco  years  of  rapid  growth  and  ol 


SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.    423 

great  general  prosperity.  The  year  1854,  however, 
marks  an  important  era  in  San  Francisco  social  evolu- 
tion. It  was  the  year  in  which  began  the  first  great 
financial  depression  of  California.  Individual  fortunes 
had  suffered  in  all  sorts  of  ways,  but  the  general  sol- 
vency of  the  mercantile  community  had  persisted.  At 
last,  however,  continuous  over-confidence  in  the  rapid 
development  of  the  wealth  of  the  country  led  to  the 
natural  result.  The  production  of  the  mines  began  to 
fall  off,  immigration  decreased,  many  people  left  the 
land,  the  consumption  of  food  diminished,  interest  and 
rents  declined  in  San  Francisco,  and  thirty  per  cent,  of 
the  warehouses  were  left  empty.^  This  second  stage  of 
commercial  life  is  universal  in  new  countries,  only  the 
swiftness  and  the  particular  conditions  of  the  calamity 
varying  from  place  to  place.  And  one  who  has  grown 
up  in  new  communities  always  listens  with  amusement 
to  the  enthusiasm  of  sanguine  investors  in  the  enter- 
prises of  some  just  settled  portion  of  our  territory, 
when  they  declare  that  the  first  stage  of  the  life  of  the 
newly  prosperous  region  is  demonstrably  only  a  faint  in- 
dication of  the  continuous  and  unceasing  future  growth 
of  its  wealth.  For,  as  the  lifelong  dweller  in  new  coun- 
tries knows,  the  enthusiasm  of  these  early  investors  is  as 
ruinous  to  them  as  it  is  valuable  for  the  new  country. 
Their  ideas  are  indeed,  in  one  sense,  well  founded. 
What  they  hope  for  is  certain  to  come  in  time,  only  for 
others,  and  not  in  general  for  them.  The  evolution  of 
the  new  land  will  not  be  what  they  think,  a  steady 
growth  in  wealth.  The  first  great  commercial  crisis  of 
its  history  will  be,  in  proportion  to  its  wealth,  the  worst 
of  all ;  and  these  sanguine  investors  will  be  destroyed 
1  J.  S.  Hittell's  History  of  San  Francisco,  p.  217. 


424  CALIFORNIA. 

lilce  flies  in  autumn.  The  second  period  of  its  growth, 
the  winter  time  of  this  great  depression,  when  all  but 
the  very  strongest  of  those  early  investors  have  become 
poor  as  church  mice,  is  the  true  time  for  a  cautious,  hard- 
working, and  shrewd  man  to  make  his  appearance  in  the 
land.  He  will  be  wiser  than  his  predecessors,  and  far 
less  extravagant.  He  wiU  buy  at  low  prices  their  half- 
abandoned  property,  and  in  later  years  they  will  bit- 
terly reproach  him,  instead  of  themselves,  for  the  wrong 
that  gave  him  a  chance  to  reap  what  they  had  sown. 
This  law  of  the  almost  universal  failure  of  the  pioneers 
of  a  new  country  was  well  exemplified  in  San  Fran- 
cisco. 

The  law  is  a  beneficent  one ;  for  the  interests  of  pio- 
neers are  at  first  much  narrower  than  the  true  and  his- 
torical interests  of  the  country  that  they  seek  to  subject 
to  their  private  schemes.  "  Something  of  the  decay  of 
business  in  the  city,"  well  observes  Mr.  J.  S.  Hittell,^ 
"  must  be  attributed  to  the  growth  of  agriculture.  Many 
of  the  immigrants  of  1852  had  gone  to  farming,  and 
they  were  joined  by  thousands  of  farmers  in  the  next 
year,  so  that  there  was  a  large  increase  in  the  produc- 
tion of  grain  and  vegetables,  and  a  correspondent  de- 
cline in  the  quantity  of  flour  imported,  in  the  number  of 
ships  needed,  and  in  the  profit  of  consignees,  warehouse- 
men, jobbers,  and  draymen  in  the  city."  But  all  this, 
of  course,  meant  the  final  advantage  of  the  whole  coun- 
try, San  Francisco  included. 

The  immediate  consequence  of  the  crisis  was  the  rev- 
elation of  much  social  corruption  that  had  been  grow- 
ing, but  that  had  been  previously  hidden.  People  had 
boasted  of  the  wild  dissipations  of  1849  and  1850,  for- 
i  History  of  San  Francisco,  loc.  cit. 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.    425 

getting  that  all  these  dissipations  had  seemed  so  note- 
worthy just  because  they  were  not  characteristic  of  the 
real  temperament  of  the  people,  and  were  a  transient 
and  inflamed  symptom  of  the  unnatural  excitements  to 
which  the  more  weak  and  foolish  of  the  young  men 
yielded.  But  now  this  wilder  dissipation  had  passed 
into  the  background  of  popular  attention.  Nobody  any 
longer  called  the  gambling-halls  respectable.-^  The 
boastful  sinners  of  the  earlier  days  had  become  willing 
to  behave  in  a  more  commonplace  fashion.  But  the 
sins  that  men  boast  of  are  never  their  worst.  What 
San  Francisco  had  not  boasted  of  being  able  to  produce 
was  sin  such  as  was  represented  by  the  distinguished 
swindler  and  forger,  Henry  Meiggs,  whose  business  un- 
dertakings, begun  early  in  the  city's  history,  culminated 
in  his  crimes  and  in  his  flight,  in  the  autumn  of  1854. 
Californians  had  been  supposed,  above  all  things,  before 
those  days  of  1854,  to  discourage  and  despise  under- 
hand dealings  and  duplicity  of  every  sort.  The  Annal- 
ists boasted  in  their  book  of  the  commercial  integrity  of 

1  Gambling  continued  to  be  licensed  in  San  Francisco  until  1855, 
but  long  before  that  time  met  with  steadily  increasing  condemnation. 
The  San  Francisco  Herald  of  April  7,  1852,  shows  the  view  generally 
taken  of  these  gambling-halls  at  that  time.  They  still  constitute  a 
"  prominent  feature  of  life  in  San  Francisco,"  but  "public  opinion  in 
the  main  is  opposed  to  their  existence,  and  they  are  tolerated  for  no 
other  reason,  that  we  know  of,  than  that  they  are  charged  heavily  for 
licenses."  They  abound,  continues  the  editor,  all  along  Commercial 
Street,  and  on  Long  Wharf,  at  the  foot  of  that  street.  Almost  all  of 
them  are  owned  by  foreigners.  The  business,  however,  is  "  not  so 
extensively  followed  as  it  was  last  year."  "  Persons  of  respectability 
and  standing  seldom  visit  the  saloons  nowadays  for  play,"  although 
at  one  time  many  such  persons  used  to  do  so.  "  The  public  are  be- 
coming more  and  more  opposed"  to  the  business  "every  day."  By 
the  end  of  1855  the  Bulletin  condemns  the  gamblers  as  among  the 
worst  elements  of  society. 


426  CALIFORNIA. 

the  city  in  even  its  wildest  days ;  and,  indeed,  the  av- 
erage integrity  of  the  early  merchants  was  high.  But 
pioneer  recklessness  has  as  its  correlate  an  extravagant 
tendency  to  hero-worship.  The  good  fellow  is  easily 
adored  in  a  new  city,  —  all  the  more  easily  because  one 
has  had  no  means  to  judge  of  his  weaknesses  by  means 
of  a  lifelong  acquaintance.  The  same  general  care- 
lessness that  tends  to  corrupt  the  morally  weaker  mem- 
bers of  pioneer  society  expresses  itself  by  trusting  ex- 
travagantly any  clever  man  whose  manners  are  pleasing. 
The  trust  gives  him  more  than  his  share  of  power,  and 
the  lack  of  public  spirit  in  the  community  gives  him  a 
chance  to  abuse  his  privileges.  And  so  San  Francisco 
produced  Meiggs,  and  was  responsible  for  him  and  his 
tribe,  as  much  as  for  the  gambling-halls ;  perhaps  more 
still. 

Meiggs  was  early  a  general  favorite  :  a  man  shrewd, 
generous,  and  speculative.  He  was  a  lumber-merchant, 
who,  as  such,  profited,  of  course,  by  the  growth  as  well 
as  by  the  occasional  partial  destruction  of  the  early  city. 
He  became  deeply  interested  in  developing  the  city  in 
the  direction  of  his  own  wharf,  at  North  Beach,  where 
land  was  cheap,  and  where  land-titles  were  compara- 
tively unclouded.  In  connection  with  this  work  he 
found  a  place  in  the  city  council ;  a  body  which,  in  the 
early  days,  best  represented  the  errors  of  the  commu- 
nity, being  wasteful  and  selfish  where  it  was  not  dis- 
honest. Meiggs  himself  entered  it  with  honest  inten- 
tions, no  doubt,  and  secured  the  passage  of  numerous 
ordinances  for  the  benefit  of  his  part  of  the  city.  But 
his  undertakings  grew  on  his  hands,  and  his  debts  in- 
rreased  as  rapidly.  He  borrowed  all  that  he  could  on 
his   own  security,  and   then   began   a  bold  enterprise, 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.    427 

namely,  borrowing  on  the  city's  security  without  au- 
thority. His  method  of  accomplishing  this  was  as  cour- 
ageous as  it  was  characteristic  of  the  place  and  time. 
The  city,  as  we  know,  was  then  and  for  years  after- 
wards deeply  in  debt  for  many  vast  and  usually  needless 
outlays.  For  its  genuine  expenses  it  required,  mean- 
while, much  money,  and,  in  place  of  that,  was  pleased  to 
increase  its  debt  by  paying  its  monthly  bills  in  warrants, 
which  were  worth  in  the  market  some  fifty  or  sixty  per 
cent,  of  their  face  value,  and  which  were,  in  fact,  later 
mostly  repudiated.  The  warrants  were  prepared  by 
filling  out  blanks  supplied  to  the  controller  in  book 
form,^  which  were  made  valid  by  the  signatures  of  the 
mayor  and  controller.  These  warrants,  according  to 
the  since  current  story,  used,  in  a  large  number  of  cases, 
to  be  signed  in  advance,  in  blank,  for  the  convenience 
of  the  officers,  who  could  thus  more  rapidly  fill  out  the 
blanks  for  each  new  creditor.  Now,  Meiggs,  as  a  city 
father,  as  a  well-known  and  responsible  citizen,  and  as  a 
man  largely  interested  in  large  city  contracts,  had  fre- 
quent, easy,  and  unwatched  access  to  the  offices  and 
books  of  the  municipal  corporation,  —  a  freedom  which, 
surely,  nobody  ought  to  regard  with  disapproval,  since 
Meiggs  was  such  a  good  fellow.  Therefore,  when  cau- 
tious investors  hesitated  to  lend  more  on  Meiggs's  real 
estate,  and  when  they  began  to  reflect  that  a  man  so 
much  involved  as  he  would  surely  carry  down  all  his  in- 
dorsers  with  him  in  case  he  fell,  the  good  Meiggs  was 
now  ready  with  a  presumably  trustworthy  collateral  secu. 
rity,  namely,  with  numerous  city  warrants,  valued  at  fifty 

1  See,  on  this  matter,  the  account  of  Meiggs's  career,  in  J.  S.  Hit- 
tell,  op.  ciL,  pp.  218,  sqq.,  especially  pp.  220  and  221.  Hittell's  ac- 
count is  an  excellent  one,  and  needs  only  a  little  to  supplement  it. 


428  CALIFORNIA. 

per  cent.,  —  warrants  that  he  was  understood  to  have 
received  from  the  city  in  connection  with  the  vast  con- 
tracts in  which  he  was  interested.  These  securities  had 
a  foundation  quite  independent  of  Meiggs's  solvency, 
and  the  cautious  lenders  joyously  received  them  as  col- 
lateral.^ For  months  nobody  thought  of  inquiring  at 
the  controller's  office  for  proof  of  the  value  of  these 
certificates,  for  they  were  of  well-known  appearance, 
and  were  not  interest-bearing  ;  ^  and  so,  with  the  fall  of 
real  estate,  in  1854,  Meiggs  became  more  and  more 
involved,  and  his  use  of  city  securities  became  more  and 
more  important  to  him.  His  courage  was  equal  even 
to  forging  promissory  notes,  and  detection  then  erelong 
became  imminent.  Accordingly,  Meiggs  quietly  stocked 
a  staunch  little  ship  with  provisions,  took  some  of  liis 
friends  and  his  brother  aboard,  and  sailed,  one  day  in 
October,  1854,  out  of  the  Golden  Gate,  and  vanished. 
Then,  of  course,  his  failure  and  flight  were  at  once  an- 
nounced. The  more  cautious  creditors  took  their  col- 
lateral to  the  city  offices  for  examination,  and  were 
overwhelmed  to  learn  that  their  city  paper  was  forged 
and  worthless.  The  signatures  might  be  genuine,  but 
the  certificates  were  not. 

There  were  reasons  why  the  public  never  learned 
just  how  much  the  energetic  Meiggs  had  stolen.  He 
never  came  back,  and  many  people  who  lost  by  him  felt 
henceforth  a  certain  delicacy  about  explaining  their 
relations  with  him.  For  the  moment,  however,  Meiggs 
was  regarded  as  an  exemplary  rascal,  and  men  won- 
dered how  deep  into  the  business  life  of  San  Francisco 

1  See  the  humorous  article  in  the  Pioneer  for  January,  1855,  vol.  ii  | 
p.  16,  »qq.^  where  Meiggs's  exploits  are  duly  celebrated. 

2  Hittell,  loc.  cit. 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.    429 

this  sort  of  corruption  had  eaten.  If  Meiggs,  people 
added,  had  only  been  content  with  cheating  his  bank- 
ers, one  could  have  forgiven  him ;  but,  as  report  in- 
sisted, he  had  cheated  his  washerwoman.  That,  men 
declared,  was  too  bad,  even  for  California.^  But,  as 
they  felt,  he  was,  after  all,  only  a  remarkable  instance 
of  an  evil  that  was  far  too  common.  For  one  thing, 
there  were  no  sufficient  public  safeguards  against  such 
rascality.  San  Francisco  was  still  without  any  very 
efficient  police,  and  especially  without  any  detective  po- 
lice.^ If  violence  was  no  longer  so  common,  the  crimes 
of  skill  were  directly  encouraged  by  the  whole  condition 
of  society.  The  just  cited  writer  in  the  "  Pioneer  '* 
says  of  the  state  of  affairs,  referring  especially  to  frauds 
in  commercial  matters  (vol.  ii.  p.  327)  :  "  Each  day  has 
its  tale  of  depravity.  We  appeal  ...  to  the  tale  that 
is  told  from  man  to  man,  each  day,  in  the  public  streets. 
...  Is  it  not  manifest  to  all  that  the  cause  of  this  con- 
tinued flood  of  crime  is  the  micertainty  of  punishment, 
—  nay,  the  almost  certainty  of  escape  ?  "  And,  on  p. 
330,  the  same  writer,  after  discussing  the  apathy  of 
prosecuting  attorneys  and  of  other  public  officials  as  one 
great  evil  of  the  times,  goes  on  to  enumerate  some  of 
the  sorts  of  greater  offenders  from  whom  the  commu- 
nity is  suffering :  "  Such  are  those  who  influence  the 
time,  place,  and  manner  of  the  acts  of  public  officers,  so 
as  to  reap  a  benefit  therefrom ;  who  get  contracts  with 
the  State  and  city  by  corrupting  legislation,  .  .  .  mis- 
use the  public  securities  intrusted  to  their  care,  .  .  . 

1  Pioneer,  loc.  cit.,  p.  17.  J.  S.  Hittell,  loc.  cit.,  erroneously  puts 
Meiggs's  flight  in  September.     See  the  Pioneer,  vol.  ii.  p.  297. 

2  See,  in  the  Pioneer,  vol.  ii.  pp.  321,  sqq,,  an  interesting  article  on 
"  A  Detective  Police."  Meiggs's  crimes  and  escape  are  mentioned  aa 
a  good  example  of  the  easy  lot  of  a  clever  criminal  in  San  Francisco 


430  CALIFORNIA. 

corrupt  judges  and  juries.  .  .  .  These  great  crimes, 
which  have  so  long  prospered  amongst  us,  leave  us  no 
security.  Life,  liberty,  and  property  have  no  safety 
when  the  tribunals  are  corrupted,  and  the  poor  man 
hides  his  little  store  and  flees  with  it  to  other  lands." 
Thus  opens  the  era  of  commercial  ill-feeling  and  suspi- 
cion in  San  Francisco,  —  an  era  that  lasted  until  after 
the  great  Vigilance  Committee.  Its  especial  exponent 
in  the  newspaper  press  began  to  appear  in  1855,  as  the 
"  San  Francisco  Bulletin."  Not  so  much  violence,  as 
corruption,  was  now  the  enemy. 

Of  Meiggs  it  remains  to  be  said  here  only  that  the 
rest  of  his  career  showed,  in  a  fresh  way,  how  com- 
pletely the  life  of  new  countries  is  sometimes  given  over 
to  Satan,  to  vex  the  inhabitants  thereof  with  diabolical 
miracles.  Even  the  commonest  laws  of  moral  evolution 
seem,  namely,  occasionally  suspended  in  such  lands,  so 
far  as  concerns,  not  the  communities  indeed,  but  certain 
individuals.  And  thus  the  weaklings  are  tempted  by 
the  sight  of  rogues  who  let  the  viper  of  wickedness 
sting  them,  but  somehow  do  not  fall  down  dead,  as  they 
ought.  Capricious  fortune  saves  some  rogues,  not 
merely  from  physical  penalties,  but  apparently  from  the 
most  inevitable  of  their  well-earned  moral  penalties. 
Such  a  diabolical  miracle  was  permitted  to  be  wrought 
in  the  case  of  Meiggs.  In  his  home  of  refuge  in  South 
America,  this  wretch,  namely,  later  became  a  distin- 
guished and  useful  citizen,  a  great  investor,  a  trustwor- 
thy financier,  a  man  much  prized  by  the  government 
and  people  of  Peru  for  his  skill,  for  his  amiability,  and 
for  his  generosity.  He  took  advantage  of  his  success 
to  satisfy  in  some  fashion  (according  to  Mr.  Hittell,  by 
buying  up  at  reduced  rates  his  old  notes)  the  claims  of 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.    431 

his  San  Francisco  creditors,  who  benevolently  forgave 
him  all  in  after  years.  The  real  mischief  that  he  had 
wrought  he  could,  of  course,  never  make  good  ;  but  it 
was  granted  him  to  die  as  an  honored  man,  —  surely  a 
most  vile  caprice  of  fortune,  however  much  Meiggs's 
own  fine  energies  may  have  contributed  to  the  result. 
That  he  ever  truly  repented  does  in  no  wise  appear. 
If  he  had  repented,  he  would  have  come  back  to  Cali- 
fornia and  gone  to  jail,  where  he  belonged. 

By  1855  we  see  the  fruits  both  of  the  aforesaid  natu- 
ral causes  and  of  all  this  commercial  and  social  corrup- 
tion, in  the  great  failures  of  February,  and  in  the  great 
business  depression  of  the  rest  of  the  year.  Page,  Ba- 
con &  Co.  and  Adams  &  Co.,  two  of  the  greatest  of  the 
city  business  houses,  the  one  a  banking-house,  the  other 
both  a  banking  and  an  express  company,  failed,  and 
carried  with  them  numerous  lesser  firms.  ^  The  finan- 
cial condition  of  the  municipality  was  meanwhile  grow- 
ing worse  and  worse.  The  naessage  of  the  mayor, 
March  12,  1855,^  showed  the  liabilities  of  the  city  in- 
curred since  May  1,  1851,  to  sum  up  as  $1,959,000, 
the  deficit  for  one  year  past  being  some  $840,000.  The 
house  of  Page,  Bacon  &  Co.  resumed  payment  March 
29,  only  to  close  its  doors  anew  and  finally  on  May  2. 
A  long  struggle  over  the  assets  of  Adams  &  Co.  began 
with  the  failure  of  that  house,  and  this  was  to  last  for 
years,  involving,  and  in  the  end  destroying,  the  personal 
reputations  of  a  good  many  people.     The  city,  later  in 

1  The  sequence  of  the  events  of  the  crisis  appears  in  the  Pioneer^ s 
"Monthly  Summary,"  vol.  iii.  p.  238.  Contemporary  with  the  crisis 
was  the  excitement  in  San  Francisco  about  the  "  Kern  River  Mines," 
atypical  instance  of  the  early  California  mining  excitements.  This 
•ne  was  especially  ill-founded  and  transient. 

2  Pioneer,  vol.  iii.  p.  368. 


432  CALIFORNIA. 

the  year,  having  been  authorized  by  statute  to  examine 
through  a  commission  its  floating  debt,  and  to  fund  the 
properly  incurred  and  legally  valid  portion  thereof, 
manage  to  repudiate  $1,737,000  of  its  warrants,  recog- 
nizing as  its  valid  indebtedness  only  some  $322,000. 
This  act,  either  an  appalling  confession  of  corruption,  or 
a  most  disgraceful  repudiation  (or  more  probably  both), 
stands  happily  alone  of  its  kind  in  San  Francisco  his- 
tory.^ All  these  things,  however,  were  the  work  of  the 
people  at  large,  who  had  tolerated  and  encouraged  sin 
so  long,  and  who  now  selfishly  tried  to  shirk  its  penalties. 

Vn.   THE   NEW   AWAKENING   OF  CONSCIENCE. 

The  conscience  of  San  Francisco,  however,  began  to 
speak  through  the  .pages  of  the  new  paper,  the  "  Bulle- 
tin," in  the  autumn  of  1855.  A  perfectly  clear  or  a 
very  highly  organized  conscience  it  was  not  yet,  but  it 
was  stern,  manly,  cruel  and  unsparing  towards  its  own 
past  lapses,  courageous,  hopeful,  and  ardent.  The  mes- 
senger who  was  inspired  to  speak  its  words  was  in  no 
old-fashioned  sense  a  prophet,  although  fate  was  pleased 
to  make  him  a  martyr.  He  was  a  very  plain  and  pro- 
saic man,  who  obviously  learned  from  his  new  task,  as 
he  went  on,  even  more  than  he  taught  to  others,  and 
who,  for  the  rest,  was  not  free  from  selfishness  in  the 
conduct  of  his  mission ;  since,  as  is  plain,  he  not  infre- 
quently felt  a  good  deal  of  personal  spite  against  the 
public  sinners  that  he  assailed.  His  weapons,  moreover, 
were  the  dangerous  ones  of  personal  journalism.  His 
methods  forced  him  to  be  always  ready  with  a  fresh 
denunciation  of  somebody,  and  he  was  sure,  therefore,  to 
eonunit  much  injustice,  if  he  continued  long  upon  hia 
1  J.  S.  Hittell,  op.  cit,  p.  227.    Pioneer^  vol.  iv.  p.  309. 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.    433 

path.     But  for  the  time  he  quickly  gained  the  support 
of  the  respectable  classes,  because  the  cause  that  he 
pleaded  Wiis  so  much  above  all  his  own  personal  weak- 
nesses and  errors,  and  because  the  need  of  plain  speech 
was  so  pressing.     James  King,   "of   William,"  as  he^^^^^'^/^  o 
following  a  practice  occasionally  found  in  jiew  commu»-^    n     (ti     " 
nities,  called  himself,  by  way  of  distinction  from  other    '  *^  ^ 
Kings,   had  been  engaged   in   banking,  and  had  been   "^  ^ 

ruined  by  the  late  panic.     The  field  of  San  Francisco  ^'^'^^A  "* 
newspapers  was  crowded,  but  still  nobody  had  made  a  '  ^^ 

business  of  preaching  concrete  righteousness  in  short  ^  ^  \ 
and  readable  paragraphs,  with  broad-faced  type  used 
for  the  headings,  and  with  plenty  of  personal  applica- 
tions scattered  all  through  the  editorial  columns.  To 
do  this  was  King's  opportunity.  He  began  his  enter- 
prise in  Oi3tober,  1855,  without  at  first  any  peculiarity:^ 
of  outer  form  to  mark  his  journal,  save  its  very  small 
size.  Three  successive  enlargements  rapidly  followed,^ 
with  his  success,  and  by  the  opening  of  the  new  year 
one  finds  his  style,  his  form  of  typography,  and  his 
plans  of  battle  fully  developed.  King  loved  to  gather 
around  him  a  little  cloud  of  correspondents,  both  friends 
and  foes,  to  assign  them  a  column  or  two  at  one  side, 
and  then  to  discourse  to  them  in  his  manly  and  vigorous 
way  in  "  leaders "  and  "  notes."  Plainly  the  one  edi- 
tor was  nearly  always  speaking,  and  King's  name  stood 
at  the  head  of  the  first  editorial  column,  yet  he  per- 
sisted in  his  merely  amusing  editorial  "  we."  His 
correspondents    addressed   him   plainly  by    name,  and 

1  The  file  that  I  have  before  me,  that  of  Harvard  College  Library, 
opens  with  number  20,  October  30,  1855,  and  is  nearly  continuous  un- 
til late  in  1856.    I  know  of  no  enlargement  of  earlier  date  than  Oc^x)* 

28  ' 

6  f^o^ 

"id     |J<JI/ 
1  a    Qa.<    /r; 


434  CALIFORNIA. 

wrote  approval,  entreaty,  expostulation  or  objurgation, 
as  the  spirit  might  move.  King  encouraged  them  very 
frequently  to  say  just  what  they  thought.  Occasionally 
a  gambler  wrote  to  defend  his  profession,  or  an  ortho- 
dox man,  full  of  interest  in  this  worthy,  but  plainly  un- 
regenerate  editor,  wrote  to  beg  King  to  save  his  own 
poor  soul,  while  the  lamp  still  held  out  to  burn.  King 
enjoyed  all  such  letters ;  and  they  all  alike  made  his 
paper  sell.  He  had  a  thoughtful  and  speculative  vein 
in  his  mind  also,  and  sometimes  touched  on  deeper 
problems. 

Meanwhile,  it  was  his  life  to  assail  official,  business, 
and  social  corruption  of  every  sort,  and  that  not  imper- 
sonally. Duels  he  declined  to  enter  upon,  once  for 
all ;  and  the  rights  of  the  public  to  a  plain  denunciation 
of  the  rascals  were  his  daily  insistence.  Yet  this  work, 
honestly  undertaken,  could  not  rest  with  personal  quar- 
rels. King  had  to  assail  the  public  apathy  and  careless- 
ness that  permitted  this  sort  of  thing.  And  that  assault 
constitutes  the  permanently  valuable  element  in  his 
work.  Nobody  cares  now  how  far  King's  personal 
hatreds  were  well  founded.  It  was  his  denunciation  of 
the  whole  social  condition  that  was  significant. 

And  serious  was  indeed  the  corruption  that  he  talked 
of  so  plainly.  In  forsaking  the  wilder  old  dissipations, 
the  community  had  still  kept  the  feeling  that  respecta- 
bility was  an  affair  of  the  heart  for  each  individual. 
Public  respectability,  such  for  instance  as  demanded  the 
banishing  of  disreputable  houses  from  the  principal 
dwelling-house  streets  of  the  city,  was  nobody's  concern. 
But   King   made   it   somebody's    concern.*     He    very 

1  A  correspondent,  November  8,  1855,  complains  of  a  most  notice, 
able  and  offensive  establishment  just  about  to  be  opened,  "situated  la 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.    435 

plainly  and  by  name  assailed  the  city  officials  whose 
private  and  illegal  connivance  was  especially  and  de- 
monstrably to  blame  for  these  things,  and  promised  to 
publish  the  names  of  the  proprietors  and  lessors  of  every 
such  house,  if  the  nuisance  were  not  abated.  "  It 's  no 
use  trying  to  dodge  the  '  Bulletin,'  gentlemen,"  he 
added.  And  in  fact  his  paper  farther  on,  in  treating 
of  the  same  evil,  did  mention  more  names  in  a  disagree- 
able way,^  threatening  always  worse.  The  result,  at 
least  in  part,  of  this  plain  speech,  was  action  by  the  al- 
dermen, and  a  committee  report  on  the  condition  of  the 
city,  in  respect  of  the  evil  mentioned,  —  a  report  that, 
as  published  in  the  "  Bulletin  "  of  November  28,  is  one 
of  the  saddest  confessions  ever  made  by  the  governing 
board  of  a  municipality.  There  is  no  sort  of  privacy^ 
the  committee  say,  about  the  evils  complained  of.  The 
best  families  of  the  town  are  daily  and  unavoidably  in- 
sulted by  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  impudent  evil 
in  its  least  bearable  forms,  all  good  women,  all  children, 
being  alike  subjected  to  this  disgrace.  The  committee 
knows  of  no  possible  remedy  that  will  not  of  necessity 
include  a  reorganization  of  the  police  force.  In  fact,  as 
is  plain,  while  there  were  numerous  pure  and  happy 
homes  in  San  Francisco,  there  was  as  yet  no  really  clean, 
pure,  and  large  neighborhood  in  the  city,  to  which  re- 
spectable families  could  go  for  their  dwelling-places  and 
be  safe.  The  struggle  for  a  true  and  humane  life  was 
still  a  hand-to-hand  fight  in  public  with  legions  of  loath- 
some little  devils. 

the  midst  of  respectable  family  residences,  and  on  one  of  the  most 
public  thoroughfares."  In  connection  with  this  \etter,  King  makes 
the  threat  noted  in  the  text. 

^  See  editorial.  November  26.  1855. 


436  CALIFORNIA. 

In  another  direction  King  had  to  fight  against  an 
equally  wide-spread  and  even  less  curable  form  of  pop- 
ular infidelity,  namely,  the  general  toleration  shown 
towards  gamblers,  —  a  toleration  which,  after  all  these 
years,  was  still  too  prevalent.  The  gambler  is  King's 
pet  villain,  and  especially  towards  the  last  of  his  work 
does  the  bold  editor,  constantly  improving  in  his  seri- 
ousness of  speech,  dwell  upon  the  general  social  evils 
of  the  recent  prevalence  of  gambling,  and  upon  the 
esteem  shown  by  some  to  the  most  notorious  gam- 
blers. Public  opinion  in  California  has  never,  says 
King,  really  approved  of  gambling,  but  has  only  per- 
mitted it,  at  first  for  lack  of  law,  then  later  by  virtue  of 
habit.  But  at  all  times,  in  California  as  everywhere, 
gambling  has  been  a  sin,  and  professional  gamblers, 
whether  licensed  or  not,  have  always  been  criminals, 
"  A  good  citizen  looks  not  to  the  laws  of  the  state  to 
guide  him  in  ethics.  '  As  many  as  have  sinned  without 
the  law  shall  perish  without  the  law.'  "  In  such  fine 
fashion  King  seeks  to  exclude  the  professional  gamblers 
once  for  all  from  the  ranks  of  respectable  and  honest 
citizens,  whether  the  laws  have  ever  encouraged  their 
business  or  not.  The  State,  insists  King,  is  just  coming 
out  of  chaos  into  a  normal  condition,  and  the  true  and 
healthy  public  sentiment  which  has  always  existed  is 
just  finding  a  chance  to  express  itself.  Let  no  one  try 
to  resist  it. 

The  discussion  in  the  course  of  which  occur  these 
expressions,  themselves  taken  from  the  "  Bulletin "  of 
April  28,  1856,  is  especially  noteworthy.  Gamblers 
had  undertaken  to  reply  to  King's  repeated  denuncia- 
tions. Why  denounce,  they  had  said,  men  who  only 
gambled  so  long  as  the  law  permitted  it,  and  who  now 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.    437 

obey  the  law,  and  do  not  follow  public  gambling  as  a 
profession  any  longer.  After  all,  have  not  the  profes-  , 
sional  gamblers  usually  been  men  of  marked  ability  and 
fine  minds,  who  were  driven  to  gambling  as  a  business 
by  the  narrowness  of  their  daily  lives,  and  by  a  certain 
honorable  pride  ?  —  The  honorable  man  of  business,  re- 
plied King,  is  the  man  "  who  in  all  his  cares  for  this 
life  has  not  neglected  to  cultivate  those  higher  feelings 
of  the  heart  —  a  reverence  to  God,  and  a  desire  for  the 
moral  improvement  of  his  race."  ^ 

It  is  in  this  connection  that  the  very  correspondent 
to  whom  these  words  of  King  are  a  reply,  plainly  one  of 
the  more  good-humored  of  the  gambling  brotherhood, 
addresses  King  (in  words  that  remind  one  of  the  well- 
known  Turkish  official's  exhortation  to  Layard),  and 
begs  the  able  editor  to  give  up  this  absurd  care  about 
the  "  public  "  good.  I,  he  says,  am  one  of  "  a  large 
number  who  have  long  since  ceased  to  worry  their  minds 
with  schemes  for  the  public  welfare,  —  a  class,  by  the 
way,  much  more  numerous  than  you  imagine,  —  who 
confidently  look  forward  to  the  time  when  you  wUl  join 
their  number,  and  rest  from  the  thankless  and  unprofit- 
able task  which  you  have  imposed  upon  yourself.  You 
are  pursuing  a  course  that  will  certainly  drive  you  to 
despair  if  persisted  in." 

VIII.    THE   CRISIS    OF    MAY,    1856. 

The  time  of  rest  for  King  was  indeed  not  far  off.  It 
was  expedient  just  then  that  one  man  should  die  for  the 
people,  and  Kins^^  services,  although  not  nearly  fault- 
less, had  been  so  excellent,  that  the  gods  seem  to  have 
esteemed  him  worthy  of  an  unspeakable  honor ;  and 
1  Bulletin,  April  21,  1856. 


438  CALIFORNIA. 

they  chose  him  as  the  man.  He  was  shot  down  on  the 
public  streets,  May  14,  1856,  by  one  James  Casey,  a  re- 
cently elected  supervisor,  an  editor  of  a  lesser  journal, 
a  politician  of  the  baser  sort,  and  a  former  convict  in 
the  New  York  state  penitentiary,  a  man  whom  King 
had  denounced  and  exposed.  King  died  six  days 
later,  of  his  wound ;  but  meanwhile  the  deed  had 
aroused  the  greatest  exhibition  of  popular  excitement 
in  the  whole  history  of  California.  In  lamenting  and 
avenging  the  fate  of  tliis  sturdy  champion  of  a  manly 
public  spirit,  the  entire  community  experienced  a  new 
outpouring  of  that  spirit,  and  King's  death  did  far  more 
than  his  life  could  possibly  have  done  to  regenerate  the 
social  order.  That  the  immediate  expression  of  the 
new  life  was  the  greatest  of  the  vigilance  committees  is, 
after  all,  to  my  mind,  the  least  important  of  the  great 
facts  of  the  situation.  Such  an  expression,  in  view  of 
Californian  habits  and  feelings  as  they  were  at  that 
time  already  formed,  was  indeed  inevitable,  but  it  was 
not  the  reaUy  essential  social  fact,  which  was  that,  upon 
King's  death,  there  followed  for  many  a  really  new 
life.  This  crisis  was  a  revelation  to  them,  which  they 
never  forgot.^ 

Why  just  the  death  of  King,  rather  than  many  far 

1  Concerning  Casey  himself,  and  the  details  of  his  quarrel  with 
King,  all  the  accounts  of  the  Great  Committee  have  repeated  the  well- 
known  statements  for  which  the  contemporary  newspapers  are  of 
course  the  source.  See  especially  Tuthill,  p.  432,  J.  S.  Hittell,  p.  244. 
On  the  whole  career  of  the  committee,  Tuthill's  account  is  the  fullest 
so  far  published  in  book  form,  although  the  author  had  no  access  to 
the  personal  reminiscences  that  have  since  been  made  public  from 
time  to  time.  My  space  and  purpose,  after  I  have  described  the  open- 
ing scenes,  will  limit  me  in  great  part  to  a  discussion  of  the  social 
bearings  rather  than  of  the  external  events  of  this  best  known  and 
most  frequently  described  scene  of  our  story. 


SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.     439 

worse  evils  then  patent  to  any  observer  in  San  Fran- 
cisco, aroused  so  fearfully  the  popular  attention,  is  a 
question  of  social  psychology  that  one  can  more  easily 
pretend  to  answer  by  a  reference  to  well-known  facts, 
than  really  put  to  rest  by  genuine  explanations.  A  pop- 
ular hero  is  always  needed,  before  the  people  can  be 
converted  from  their  sins  ;  and  King,  as  we  see,  had 
some  really  heroic  stuff  in  him.  He  seemed  for  the 
moment  a  martyr  pure  and  simple.  Wherefore  had  he 
fallen?  Because  he  had  served  the  people,  and  had 
spoken  fearlessly  against  evil.  Who  was  now  safe? 
Surely  no  honest  and  plain-spoken  man.  Who  could 
now  prosper  here,  in  such  an  unpurified  community  ? 
Only  the  rogues.  And  the  so  much  needed  families  — 
would  they  now  crowd  to  this  land  of  promise  ?  Cer- 
tainly not,  so  long  as  the  blood  of  this  husband  and 
father,  dead  in  his  city's  cause,  cried  to  heaven  in  vain 
for  vengeance.  Would  the  courts  suffice  at  such  a  cri- 
sis ?  Nay,  one's  executive  officers  of  the  law  were  not 
trustworthy.  Judges  indeed  might  mean  well  and  do 
well.  But  the  sheriffs,  and  the  deputies,  and  the  police, 
not  to  mention  the  prosecuting  attorneys,  —  who  had 
confidence  in  them  ?  What  but  a  revolution  could  de- 
liver the  community  from  the  body  of  this  death  ?  Such 
thoughts  were  in  many  minds,  and  were  embodied  in 
most  of  the  newspaper  comments.  The  "  Herald,"  whose 
editor  the  "  Bulletin  "  had  often  sharply  denounced,  now, 
in  return,  spoke  of  the  shooting  of  King  as  an  "  affray ;  " 
but  it  was  almost  alone  in  failing  to  share  the  popular 
feeling.  Most  people  had  forgotten  King's  failings,  in 
their  sense  of  the  public  calamity  of  his  death.  In  this 
one  fact  they  saw  a  condensed  expression  of  the  whole 
corrupt  state  of   society.     In    such  a  state  of  popular 


440  CALIFORNIA. 

feeling,  a  mob  was  imminent.  The  business  men 
therefore  chose  to  calm  the  spirits  of  more  excitable 
people,  and  to  enlist  their  active  service  in  the  cause  of 
good  order,  by  choosing  the  only  alternative.  They 
avoided  mob  law,  pure  and  simple,  only  by  organizing 
the  most  remarkable  of  all  the  popular  tribunals, 
whereby  was  effected  that  unique  historical  occurrence, 
a  Business  Man's  Revolution.  For  such  was  the  second 
vigilance  committee  of  San  Francisco. 

On  Wednesday  afternoon,  May  14,  had  appeared  the 
denunciation  of  Casey  by  King  which  led  to  the  shoot* 
ing.  The  same  afternoon  it  was  that  King  was  shot. 
The  next  day's  "Bulletin  "  appeared  with  a  blank  column 
in  place  of  the  usual  editorial,  and  published  in  full  the 
official  documents  from  New  York  upon  which  King 
had  founded  his  denunciation  of  Casey  as  a  convict 
The  morning  press  had  freely  commented  on  the  occurs 
rence,  and  the  public  excitement  had  been  great.  Calls 
for  the  vigilance  committee  were  already  in  print,  and 
in  secret  the  new  organization  was  already  under  way. 
The  "  Bulletin  "  of  Friday  contained  very  little  news, 
but  was  crowded  with  furious  letters  from  correspond- 
ents, with  denunciations  of  the  "  Herald's  "  course  in 
opposing  the  formation  of  a  vigilance  committee,  and 
with  other  like  expressions  of  excitement  and  rage. 
The  announcement  was  made  that  the  new  committee 
was  progressing  finely  with  its  organization ;  several 
thousand  names  being  now  supposed  to  be  enrolled,  to 
obey  the  orders  of  the  executive  committee,  whose  meet- 
ings were  of  course  private. 

Both  the  excitement  and  the  formation  of  the  con* 
mittee  continued  during  the  next  few  days.  Saturday's 
"  Bulletin  "  contained  an  item  bearing  on  an  important 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.    441 

incident  of  the  organization,  an  incident  since  much  dis- 
cussed, namely,  the  visit  of  Governor  Johnson  to  the 
rooms  of  the  Vigilance  Committee.  Mayor  Van  Ness, 
feeling  the  dangers  of  the  situation,  with  Casey  confined 
in  a  not  very  secure  jail,  with  newspapers  so  violently 
calling  for  vengeance,  with  a  vigilance  committee  in 
process  of  formation,  under  the  direction  of  the  most 
prominent  merchants,  with  King  lying  at  death's  door, 
had  sent  for  the  governor  to  come  down  to  the  aid  of 
the  law.  This  Know-Nothing  governor,  however,  was 
not  the  ablest  of  California's  statesmen,  and  the  situation 
at  San  Francisco  was  far  beyond  his  power  to  understand 
or  to  improve.  As  is  now  known, ^  Governor  Johnson, 
on  his  arrival  in  the  city  Friday  afternoon,  called 
privately  upon  Mr.  Coleman,  who  was  already  under- 
stood to  be  at  the  head  of  the  executive  committee,  and, 
according  to  Mr.  Coleman  himself,  seemed  to  appreciate 
the  feelings  of  the  San  Francisco  people,  and  gave  the 
impression  that  he  was  willing  to  let  them  act  as  they 
saw  fit,  so  long  as  they  were  careful  to  act  as  a  body, 
and  in  an  orderly  way.^  But  late  in  the  evening,  the 
governor,  in  company  with  several  other  persons,  visited 
the  already  well-guarded  rooms  of  the  committee,*  and 

1  Through  Mr.  Wm.  T.  Coleman's  statements,  especially  his  elabo- 
rate one  in  B.  MS. 

2  Mr.  Coleman,  in  this  interview,  reminded  the  governor,  as  an  old 
Californian,  of  what  had  passed  under  similar  circumstances  before 
in  the  State,  and  then  ?aid  (as  Mr.  Coleman  now  words  it),  "  that  I 
did  not  want  him  to  feel  that  we  were  taking  any  advantage  of  his 
position  ;  but  I  honestly  expressed  to  him  my  convictions  of  the  neces- 
sities of  the  hour,  and  of  what  we  wanted  to  do,  and  would  do,  as  a 
body."     "  We  "  meant  of  course  the  executive  committee. 

8  The  visitors  included  General  Sherman,  just  before  that  time  ap- 
pointed by  the  governor  major-general  of  the  state  militia.  His  well- 
known  account  of  the  interview  is  found  in  his  Memoirs,  vol.  i.  p. 
121,  sqq.  The  committee  were  now  meeting  in  the  Turnverein  Hall 
on  Bush  Street. 


442  CALIFORNIA. 

in  a  somewhat  more  official  tone  sought  to  make  his 
hostility  to  the  purposes  of  the  committee  evident.  He 
first  sent  word  in  to  the  committee-rooms  that  he  desired 
speech  with  Mr.  Coleman.  The  members  of  the  execu- 
tive committee,  within  doors,  urged  Mr.  Coleman,  as  he 
went  out,  not  to  commit  them  to  anything,  to  leave  their 
freedom  of  action  quite  unimpaired,  and  to  make  no  use- 
less promises  to  the  governor.^  Mr.  Coleman  was  of  the 
same  mind.  The  visitors  stood  at  first  in  an  ante-room, 
waiting  for  their  interview,  and  when  Mr.  Coleman  came 
out,  all  together  met  in  a  bar-room  to  the  right  of  the 
entrance.  Mr.  Coleman  seemed  to  General  Sherman 
"  pale  and  agitated,"  a  fact  which  the  former  seems  not 
to  have  remembered,  if  it  was  real  at  all.  But,  at  all 
events,  the  governor,  "  just  as  if  he  had  not  asked  the 
same  questions  a  few  hours  before,  in  our  former  inter- 
view "  (as  Mr.  Coleman  indignantly  remarks),  began  to 
ask  afresh  about  the  purposes  of  the  committee.  Mr. 
Coleman  responded  that  the  people  were  determined, 
now  at  last,  to  see  justice  done  in  the  city.  This  organ- 
ization was  no  mob,  but  it  meant  to  see  that  Casey 
should  not  escape,  and  that  San  Francisco  should  not  be 
left  to  her  present  sort  of  legal  officers  to  prevent  that 
escape. 

Hereupon  Johnson  made  a  proposal,  whose  nature 
and  reception  form  the  great  topic  of  interest  and  of 
controversy  concerning  this  interview.  According  to 
Johnson's  own  view,  and  to  General  Sherman's  recollec- 
tion of  the  matter,  Johnson  proposed  that  "  if  Coleman 
and  associates  would  use  their  influence  to  support  the 
law,  he  (the  governor)  would  undertake  "  that  Casey's 

1  So  much  I  have  orally  from  Mr.  E.  S.  Osgood  of  Cambridge 
lalready  cited  above),  who  was  pre^ent  within  doors  at  the  moment. 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.     443 

legal  trial  should  be  as  speedy  and  effective  as  possible, 
under  the  law.  He  even  offered  "  to  be  personally  re- 
sponsible for  Casey's  safe-keeping  until  his  trial,  or  un- 
til his  execution,  in  case  he  should  be  convicted.  Mr. 
Coleman,  according  to  the  same  account,^  "admitted 
that  the  proposition  of  the  governor  was  fair,  and  all 
he  or  any  one  should  ask,"  and  retired  to  submit  it  to 
the  executive  committee.  After  consultation,  says  this 
same  account,  Mr.  Coleman  reappeared,  with  a  number 
of  other  men,  representatives  of  the  committee  ;  "  the 
whole  conversation  was  gone  over  again,  and  the  gov- 
ernor's proposition  was  positively  agreed  to,  with  this 
further  condition,  that  the  Vigilance  Committee  should 
send  into  the  jail  a  small  force  of  their  own  men,  to 
make  certain  that  Casey  should  not  be  carried  off  or 
allowed  to  escape." 

This  account,  however,  which  makes  Mr.  Coleman 
and  his  companions  surrender  at  once  to  the  governor, 
and  so  undertake  to  leave  Casey's  trial  to  the  regular 
courts  at  the  very  moment  when  all  San  Francisco  was 
moved  to  instant  vengeance,  is  antecedently  absurd. 
No  California  committee  ever  at  such  a  moment  aban- 
doned its  work.  Had  the  governor  offered  or  been  able 
to  offer  his  cooperation  in  a  joint  action  of  the  popular 
body  and  of  the  officers  of  the  law,  such  a  joint  action, 
for  instance,  as  had  been  possible  in  the  Hounds'  affair 
in  1849,  the  committee  might  have  yielded  something 
of  its  own  claims.  But  no  such  offer  was  now  even 
remotely  possible.  And  the  governor  meanwhile  was 
not  able  to  speak  to  the  committee  with  any  force  be- 
hind him.  His  authority  was  unsupported.  The  militia 
companies  of  the  city  were  already  enrolling  themselves 
1  See  General  Sherman's  Memoirs,  toe.  cit.,  p.  122. 


444  CALIFORNIA. 

in  a  body  on  the  committee  lists,  and  the  arms  in  the 
city  were  already  in  large  part  in  the  committee's  pos- 
session. The  militia  force  of  the  State  at  large  was 
powerless ;  and  public  opinion  everywhere  favored  im- 
mediate justice  upon  the  murderer  of  King.  A  com-  f 
mittee  formed  at  such  a  crisis  would  have  felt  itself  to 
be  merely  trifling  with  its  enrolled  thousands  of  mem- 
bers had  it  entertained  for  a  moment  such  a  proposition 
from  an  actually  impotent  governor,  and  had  it  suspended 
at  the  very  outset  its  deliberate  purposes. 

And,  in  fact,  not  only  antecedent  probability,  but 
sound  testimony,  is  against  General  Sherman's  memory, 
a  memory  which,  for  the  rest,  was  hardly  meant  by  the 
Creator  for  purely  historical  purposes,  genial  and  amus- 
ing though  its  productions  may  be.  In  this  case  the 
vigilance  members  directly  concerned  very  plainly  con- 
tradict General  Sherman's  account.  Mr.  Coleman  heard 
the  governor's  proposition,  indeed,  just  as  General  Sher- 
man reports  it,  but  he  did  not  assent  to  it.  He  first 
declined  to  make  any  compromise  without  consulting  his 
associates.  "  I  then,"  he  declares  (B.  MS.  as  cited) 
"went  back  to  the  executive  room,  and  reported  the 
conversation  briefly  ;  and  Governor  Johnson's  proposi- 
tion met  with  prompt  resistance  ;  every  voice  was  raised 
against  any  halting,  any  hesitation,  any  parley,  any  con- 
cession short  of  prompt  action."  The  committee  of 
members,  sent  back  with  Mr.  Coleman  to  continue  the 
discussion  with  the  governor,  accordingly  explained  to 
the  latter  this  decision  of  the  executive  committee,  and 
made  but  one  concession,  namely,  that  no  action  should 
be  taken  by  the  executive  committee  to  remove  Casey 
from  the  jail,  until  Governor  Johnson  had  received  ail 
hour's  written  notice  of  such  intended  action.     Mean- 


IP      SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.     445 

while  it  was  agreed  that  a  guard  of  committee  members 
should  enter  and  be  allowed  to  remain  in  the  jail  for  the 
time,  to  see  that  the  prisoners  were  safe,  but  not  to  super- 
sede or  interfere  with  the  lawful  officers.  In  case  this 
should  be  permitted,  the  representatives  of  the  commit* 
tee  promised  the  governor,  as  Mr.  Coleman  says,  "  That 
we  would  remain  quiet  for  the  present ;  and  they  might 
rely  upon  our  making  no  demonstration  .  .  .  until  we  gave 
formal  notice  of  any  change  we  wanted  to  make.  And 
furthermore,  if  we  changed  our  status,  if  we  wished  to 
withdraw  from  the  contract,"  it  was  promised  "  that  we 
would  withdraw  our  forces  from  the  jail,  and  leave  it  in 
their  possession."  All  this,  as  Mr.  Coleman  insists, 
"was  agreed  to  on  our  part  in  the  most  perfect  good 
faith."  The  governor,  he  continues,  misunderstood  this 
action,  interpreting  it  as  an  armistice,  and  the  committee 
felt  much  aggrieved  when  they  found  out  the  fact  the 
next  day. 

With  this  account  of  Mr.  Coleman's  the  memory  of 
Mr.  Osgood,  as  expressed  to  me  recently  in  conversation, 
fully  agrees.  Mr.  Osgood  was  one  of  the  committee 
members  who  accompanied  Mr.  Coleman  on  his  return 
from  the  executive  rooms  to  the  bar-room,  where  the 
governor  was  waiting.  There  can  therefore  be  little 
doubt  as  to  the  understanding  of  the  affair  at  the  moment 
from  the  side  of  the  very  cool-headed  and  able  members 
of  the  committee.^     The  spectacle  of  the  governor  of  the 

1  As  to  the  carrying  out  of  this  agreement  in  the  sequel,  there  can 
also  be  no  doubt  that  the  governor  was  notified,  by  the  committee,  of 
their  intended  action,  before  they  took  Casey  out  of  the  jail,  and  that 
before  this  action  itself  they  early  endeavored  to  correct  Johnson's 
misunderstanding  of  the  result  of  the  interview;  see  Sherman,  loc. 
dt.,  p  123.  "  Treachery,"  then,  there  was  none,  only  distinct  re- 
fusal to  submit  to  the  governor's  wishes,  coupled  with  a  willingness 
uot  to  act  too  hastily. 


446  CALIFORNIA. 

state  here  blundering  into  a  worthless  agreement  with 
a  body  of  men  whom  he  could  neither  awe  by  any  show 
of  official  force,  nor  thus  privately  approach  with  any 
sense  of  his  official  dignity,  was  not  edifying,  and  the 
affair  ruined  him  politically  with  both  of  the  chief  par- 
ties concerned  in  San  Francisco  affairs  at  that  moment. 
The  committee  men  despised  him  thenceforth,  but  no 
more  than  did  the  "  Law  and  Order"  men.  Governor 
Johnson,  it  is  plain,  had  not  even  the  good  sense  to  get 
his  agreement  with  the  committee,  such  as  it  was,  into  a 
written  form. 

During  these  busy  days,  the  "  Law  and  Order  "  men 
*Jiemselves  voiced  their  opinions  in  the  "  Herald,"  but 
they  were  powerless  to  resist  the  general  popular  senti- 
ment. They  were  generally  either  politicians  or  lawyers. 
What  they  had  to  say  was  itself  often  sound  enough. 
Its  application  to  this  diseased  community  waSj  however, 
the  real  difficulty.  A  reformation  was  needed,  this 
moment  of  popular  excitement  was  the  proper  one  to 
begin  it ;  and  yet  no  beginning  was  possible  just  here 
and  now  that  did  not  take  the  too  familiar  and  yet  so 
dangerous  form  of  a  popular  tribunal.  To  resist  the 
committee  was  only  to  throw  the  city  the  more  certainly 
into  the  hands  of  a  furious  mob.  The  popular  passion 
existed,  and  was  for  the  time  irresistible.  The  commit- 
tee's possible  service  would  lie  in  directing  and  control- 
ling this  passion,  which  no  "  Law  and  Order  "  sentiment 
could  now  quell.  So  serious  are  the  situations  that 
long-indulged  social  crimes  produce  ! 

On  Sunday  the  first  great  act  of  the  new  organization 
was  carried  out.  The  committee  went  to  the  jail,  and 
took  therefrom  Casey  himself,  conveying  him  safely  to 
their   own   rooms.     Nor    did    their    action    stop   here. 


"      SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.    447 

Another  now  notorious  criminal  was  confined  in  the 
jail,  one  Cora  by  name,  who  had  some  months  previously 
shocked  the  community  by  shooting  a  United  States 
marshal,  General  Richardson,  for  showing  public  dis- 
approval of  Cora's  mistress,  herself  also  a  person  of  no 
doubtful  notoriety.  The  committee,  in  the  carrying  out 
of  the  popular  will  of  the  moment,  felt  itself  justified  in 
seizing  Cora  also,  whose  legal  punishment  was  not  very 
imminent. 

The  seizure  of  these  two  was  made  an  imposing  spec- 
tacle. The  executive  committee  called  out  twenty-four 
companies,  of  a  nominal  force  of  one  hundred  each. 
All  the  men  had  received  a  brief  drill  since  the  organ- 
ization of  the  committee.  Many  were  old  soldiers  them- 
selves ;  all  were  used  to  arms  ;  and  a  large  number  of 
Frenchmen  who  had  joined  the  organization  were  es- 
pecially noteworthy  for  their  fine  appearance  as  soldiers. 
The  movements  of  this  body  were  skillfully  directed,  all 
the  detachments  into  which  the  force  was  divided  con- 
verging to  the  vicinity  of  the  jail  on  Broadway,  without 
any  mistakes  or  confusion.  About  an  hour  was  spent 
by  the  committee  at  the  jail,  where  the  leading  mem- 
bers of  the  executive  committee  made  their  demands  of 
the  officers,  and  finally  gained,  through  their  quiet  show 
of  irresistible  force,  the  peaceable  surrender  of  both  the 
prisoners,  Casey  being  first  given  up,  and  then  Cora. 
Houses  all  about  were  covered  with  spectators,  and  the 
streets  in  the  rear  of  the  committee's  force  were 
thronged.  The  vast  majority  of  those  present  as  spec- 
tators warmly,  although  very  quietly,  approved  of  what 
was  going  on,  and  this  first  deed  of  popular  justice,  as 
executed  by  the  great  committee,  was  the  most  orderly 


448  CALIFORNIA. 

and  impressive  of  its  sort  so  far  in  the  history  of  Cal- 
ifornia.^ 

IX.     POPULAR    VENGEANCE    AND   THE    NEW    MOVEMENT. 

The  moral  effect  of  this  scene  was  very  great,  but  it 
was  only  the  first  of  a  series.  May  20,  at  half-past 
one,  King  died.  The  news  was  on  public  bulletin-boards 
at  once,  and  the  whole  community  was  in  mourning. 
The  "  Bulletin  "  appeared  that  afternoon  without  any 
comments  on  the  death  of  its  editor,  time  permitting 
only  a  four-lined  notice  of  the  fact  before  the  number 
was  printed.  The  public  excitement  was  tremendous. 
All  the  church  bells  were  tolled  ;  the  prominent  business 
houses  were  closed,  their  doors  being  draped  in  black ; 
the  flags  on  the  numerous  ships  in  the  bay  were  run  up 
at  half-mast ;  vast  crowds  gathered  in  the  streets  near 
the  committee  rooms.  No  such  disorder,  however,  was 
manifest  now  in  the  crowd  about  the  committee  rooms 
as  had  shown  itself  in  1851,  on  one  similar  occasion, 
when  an  immediate  execution  was  expected.  When  the 
announcement  was  made  that  the  members  of  the  ex- 
ecutive committee  were  trying  Casey,  and  that  all  should 
be  done  decently  and  in  order,  the  citizens  quietly  dis- 
persed.    The  regular  police  of  the  city  had  meanwhile 

1  I  have  before  me  the  accounts  given  by  the  Bulletin  for  Monday, 
May  19,  and  the  Alta  of  the  same  date  (as  repeated  in  the  steamer 
extra  edition  of  May  21).  The  Alta  account  makes  the  number  of 
companies  present  twentj'-six.  See,  further,  Tuthill,  p.  439;  J.  S.  Hit- 
tell,  p.  249;  Sherman,  p.  124.  Sherman  makes  the  blunder  of  remem- 
bering this  Sunday  as  the  day  of  King's  funeral.  King  was  not  yet 
dead.  One  has  only  to  compare  the  remarkable  good  order  displayed 
on  this  occasion  with  the  tumultuous  scenes  of  the  early  affairs  of 
1851,  and  with  their  hurr^'ing  and  excited  crowds  of  spectators,  with 
their  quarrels  and  their  dangerous  uncertainty  of  action,  to  see  how 
well  the  arts  of  Ivnch  law  had  now  been  learned. 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.     449 

little  to  do.  The  committee  did  not  try  to  supersede 
them  as  yet  in  other  respects,  and  gave  over  into  their 
hands  one  or  two  petty  offenders,  whom  citizens  arrested 
and  brought  to  the  rooms  that  evening.  But  the  public 
mood  appalled  for  the  moment  all  offenders,  great  and 
small.  The  men  popularly  accused  of  being  Casey's 
"  conspirators,"  in  the  imagined  "  plot "  that  rumor 
made  responsible  for  King's  death,  were  in  hiding- 
places. 

Chief  among  these  supposed  "  conspirators  "  was  Mr. 
Edward  McGowan,  whose  "  Narrative  of  the  Author's 
Adventures  and  Perils  while  persecuted  by  the  San 
Francisco  Vigilance  Committee  of  1856  "  (published  by 
the  author  at  San  Francisco  in  1857),  is  a  book  as  en- 
tertaining as  it  is  characteristic  and  unprincipled.  Mr. 
McGowan  (who  still  survives)  had  for  some  time  been  a 
personal  friend  of  Casey's,  had  fully  sympathized  with 
the  latter's  indignation  at  King's  cruel  reference  to  cer- 
tain youthful  indiscretions  of  Casey's  in  New  York  State, 
had  known  also,  on  that  fatal  afternoon,  of  Casey's  in- 
tention to  "  fight  "  King,  and  had  even  "  embraced  "  the 
convict  hero  before  the  combat,  bidding  him  an  affec- 
tionate farewell  (see  the  "  Narrative,"  pp.  14  and  15). 
Mr.  McGowan  had  intended  to  follow  Casey  to  this  field 
of  honor,  and  see  what  the  "Herald"  next  day  called 
the  "  affray."  King,  of  course,  would  be  armed,  it  was 
supposed,  and  "  like  almost  all  old  Calif ornians,"  Mr. 
McGowan  "  was  accustomed  to  such  sights  ;  and,  natu- 
rally enough,  when  I  knew  that  a  fight  was  about  to 
take  place,  curiosity  prompted  me  to  witness  it."  Un- 
der these  circumstances,  Mr.  McGowan  was  indeed  ex- 
posed to  cruel  suspicions  of  sharing  in  a  conspiracy  to 
kill  King.     It  was  within  the  next  few  days  reported, 

29 


450  CALIFORNIA. 

falsely,  he  affirms,  that  he  had  lent  Casey  his  own  pistol 
for  the  occasion,  and  Mr.  McGowan  soon  found  it  neces- 
sary first  to  hide,  and  then,  by  the  help  of  his  many 
friends,  to  fly.  He  was,  in  the  sequel,  pursued  by  mem- 
bers of  the  committee,  far  into  the  southern  country, 
but  finally  escaped,  and  later  returned  to  the  city.  I 
take  Mr.  McGowan's  naive  statement  of  his  connection 
with  King's  death  in  perfectly  good  faith,  since  it  is  un- 
necessary to  judge  his  character  more  severely  than  his 
own  confession  forces  one  to  do.  Good  citizens  do  not 
behave  in  just  this  way,  but  Mr.  McGowan  was  only  in 
Le  a  "  conspirator." 
plot,"  then,  "  to  assassinate  "  King  had  probably 
only  in  the  sense  that  a  number  of  those  who, 
Casey,  had  grievances  against  the  plain-spoken  ed- 
itor had  frequently  talked  over  their  feelings  and  their 
wrongs,  and  had  become  more  and  more  resolved  to  call 
him  to  account  in  their  owntway.  This  way,  however, 
was  not  one  that  could  be  much  furthered  by  a  "  con- 
spiracy to  assassinate,"  because  their  moral  code  im- 
plied, as  a  matter  of  so-called  "  honor,"  something  like 
a  single  combat  in  eveiy  such  case.  Any  aggrieved  per- 
son, namely,  might  shoot  King  on  sight,  since  King  once 
for  all  refused  to  fight  regular  duels,  but  "  honor  '* 
would  imply  that  every  such  assassin  should  take  some 
apparent  chance  of  being  shot  in  return,  and  so  should 
go  alone  to  accost  King.  How  much  chance  should  be 
'given  to  King  to  defend  himself  would,  of  course,  de- 
pend, according  to  the  well-known  and  amusing  code  of 
frontier  street-fights,  upon  the  taste  of  the  individual 
assassin.  Casey's  taste  preferred,  as  is  also  known,  an 
immediate  sequence  of  shot  upon  meeting,  in  such  wise 
as  to  give  King  the  least  possible  chance  to  return  his 


W        SOCIAL   EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.    451 

fire.  And,  of  course,  all  who  knew  beforehand  of 
Casey's  intent  were  alike  accessories  to  the  murder. 
But  an  effective  conspiracy  to  unite  in  a  murderous  as- 
sault upon  King  would  have  been  quite  repugnant  to 
all  the  gentlemanly  instincts  of  these  fellows. 

While  the  citizens  mourned  for  King,  the  executive 
committee  tried  his  assassin,  as  well  as  Cora.  No  jury 
was  used  in  this  case,  the  executive  committee  sitting  as 
court,^  but  every  opportunity  is  said  to  have  been 
given  to  both  men  to  offer  any  defense  that  they  had. 
Both  were,  however,  guilty  of  murder,  and  so  much  is 
clear.  Both,  moreover,  had  committed  murder  to 
avenge  "  insults,"  and  both  the  "  insults  "  were  of  a  sort 
somewhat  unavoidable  in  a  world  where  spades  are, 
after  all,  sooner  or  later,  sure  to  be  called  spades  by 
somebody,  and  that  especially  where  the  spades  are 
already  public  property.  One  thing  only  the  committee 
could  yet  do  for  its  prisoners.  It  would  not  hang  them 
too  hastily.  It  would  give  them  a  little  time  to  think, 
and  would  let  them  see  spiritual  advisers,  if  they  de- 
sired, before  the  execution.  This  last  privilege,  I  re- 
gret to  say,  is  amusingly  described  by  a  prominent  mem- 
ber of  the  committee  (in  a  statement  that  has  been 
among  the  several  that  I  have  had  the  good  fortune  to 
read)  as  an  act  "  giving  the  prisoners  the  benefit  of 
dergy.''  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  "  benefit "  was  ap- 
preciated, even  if  it  was  not  precisely  the  same  as  the 
thing  formerly  called  by  that  name. 

May  22d  was  set  for  King's  funeral.     The  executive 

committee  is  said  (by  Mr.  Osgood  in  his  oral  statements 

to  me)  to  have  been  moved  to  appoint  that  day  for  the 

execution  of  Casey  by  reason  of  their  fear  that  a  rescue, 

1  See  Mr.  Coleman's  statement,  B.  MS. 


452  CALIFORNIA. 

similar  to  that  of  Whittaker  and  McKenzie  in  1851, 
would  early  be  attempted.  At  all  events,  just  as  the  fu- 
neral procession  was  following  King  to  Lone  Mountain, 
after  a  service  at  the  Unitarian  Church,  in  which  several 
clergymen  had  joined  to  honor  the  martyr  editor,  the 
committee  took  its  opportunity,  and  publicly  executed 
both  Casey  and  Cora,  in  front  of  fts  rooms,  at  a  moment 
when  the  vast  crowds  in  the  neighborhood  were  slightly 
lessened  by  the  departure  of  so  many  to  witness  the 
burial.  .The  solemnity  and  good  order  of  the  execution 
are  well  known.  Both  the  prisoners  had  been  warned 
of  their  doom  the  day  before.  Both,  as  Catholics,  had 
received  the  sacrament  from  ministers  of  their  faith,  and 
Cora  was,  before  his  execution,  and  by  the  order  of  his 
confessor,  married  to  the  mistress  on  whose  behalf  he 
had  slain  Richardson.  Cora  himself  met  death  very 
coolly  and  without  complaint.  Casey,  from  the  impro- 
vised platform  in  front  of  the  rooms,  made  a  brief  and 
slightly  incoherent  and  agitated  dying  speech,  wherein 
he  denied  that  he  was  a  murderer.  His  now  aged  and 
'  still  living  mother,  he  averred,  had  taught  him  to  avenge 
insults.  He  had  acted  upon  the  teachings  of  his  child- 
hood, and  what  he  had  done  was  no  murder.  Let  no 
one  publish  to  the  world  and  to  his  mother  that  it  was 
!  murder.  Might  God  forgive  him  his  many  sins,  and 
'     receive  his  spirit.     And  so  the  wretch  died. 

With  this  act,  thought  many,  and  General  Sherman 

among  the  rest,^   the  committee  would  have  done  its 

i      work,  and  would  disband.     Had  it,  however,  done  so, 

V    there  would  be  hardly  any  place  for  the  committee  in 

I       history.     The  incidents  thus  far  were  but  the  beginning 

'     of  the  new  movement,  and  their  own  significance  lay 

1  Memoirs,  vol.  i.  p.  124. 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.    453 

elsewhere  than  in  the  hanging  of  one  or  tia^  rogues. 
Not  the  execution  of  King's  murderer,  butJhe_£rosecu- 
tion  of  King's  work,  was  the  mission  of  the  people  of 
San  Francisco  at  the  time.  And  the  Vigilance  Com- 
mittee, with  all  its  defects,  represented  this  mission. 

The  great  task  was,  of  course,  to  purify  municipal  pol- 
itics. Directly  the  committee  could  do  nothing  to  this 
end,  save  to  terrify  and  to  banish  a  few  notorious  bal- 
lot-box stuffers.  But  indirectly  much  could  be  done,  by 
so  popular  a  body,  to  organize  public  opinion,  and  to 
prepare  it  for  the  coming  municipal  elections  of  the  au- 
tumn. The  problem,  of  course,  lay  in  the  choice  of  tlie 
activity  to  which  the  committee  should  devote  itself  to 
gain  this  end.  So  powerful  a  body  must  be  tempted, 
of  course,  to  misuse  its  power,  and  unless  it  did  so,  the 
committee  would  soon  be  in  danger  of  losing  hold  on 
the  now  over-excited  public.  A  vigilance  committee  is 
once  for  all  an  evil  presence  in  a  city ;  and  its  tendency 
to  spread  abroad  disease  is  as  sure,  even  in  the  best  of 
cases,  as  its  tendency  to  cure  disease.  The  great  com- 
mittee was  productive  of  more  good  than  evil  only  be- 
cause in  the  sequel  it  was  not  left  to  its  natural  tenden- 
cies, but  was  constantly  guided  by  cautious  and  conscien- 
tious men,  whose  acts  were  not  always  wise,  but  whose 
purposes  were  honest  and  rational.  Now  that  they  had 
begun,  they  felt  it  a  sin  to  abandon  their  task  until  they 
saw  more  fruit  than  the  death  of  two  scoundrels.  But 
in  order  to  finish  their  voyage  safely  they  must  steer 
clear  of  numerous  and  dangerously  near  rocks. 

X.    PERILS    AND    TRIUMPHS    OF   THE    GREAT    COMMITTEE. 

The  "  Bulletin  "  of  May  29th  I  choose  at  random 
among  the  numbers  published  during  the  early  weeks  of 


454  CALIFORNIA. 

the  committee's  life,  as  illustrating  the  dangers  to  which 
the  committee  was  now  subject  from  the  side  of  its 
friends.  The  editor  (by  this  time  Thomas  S.  King, 
the  brother  of  James)  writes  on  "  What  the  People  ex- 
pect of  the  Vigilance  Committee."  "  The  people," 
says  the  editor,  "  look  to  them  for  reform  —  a  radical 
reorganization  in  spirit  if  not  in  fact  —  of  our  city  gov- 
ernment." The  remaining  persons  suspected  of  conspir- 
acy against  James  King  must,  he  continues,  be  caught, 
tried,  and,  if  found  guilty,  hanged.  But  the  committee 
must  not  stop  there.  It  must  purify  the  ballot-box. 
And  how ?  "If  we  would  have  order  hereafter,  an  ex- 
ample must  now  be  made  of  the  ballot-box  stuffers.  If 
there  is  any  one  in  the  custody  of  the  committee  on 
whom  ballot-box  stuffing  can  be  clearly  proved,  his  pun- 
ishment should  be  exemplary.  We  are  not  ignorant  of 
the  weight  of  the  words  we  utter.  Tampering  with 
elections  is,  in  fact,  the  most  heinous  of  crimes.  It  is 
worse  than  treason.  .  .  .  We  do  not  mean  ...  to  make 
suggestions  to  the  committee.  But  it  appears  to  as  that 
to  insure  the  future  purity  of  elections,  an  example 
should  be  made.  ...  It  may  be  that  there  are  other 
means,  but  if  not,  let  the  men  who  have  insulted  our 
community,  disgraced  our  State,  and  sown  the  seeds  of 
which  we  have  been  lately  reaping  the  fruits,  meet  their 
due  fate,  Death  by  Hanging  —  the  words  must  be 
spoken  —  not  in  revenge  for  the  past,  but  as  a  warning 
to  all  who  might  be  inclined  to  emulate  their  example 
in  the  future.  Hang  one  ballot-box  stuff er,  and  we  shall 
have  no  more  of  them." 

This  loose  talk  is  echoed  by  one  or  two  correspond- 
ents whose  letters  appear  in  the  same  number  (one  H. 
B.  G.  in  particular).     So  fatally  blind  is  the  righteously 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION    IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.     455 

indignant  citizen,  at  such  moments,  to  the  fact  that  the 
punishment  of  a  wretch  is  after  all  of  no  more  impor- 
tance than  is  the  wretch  himself,  save  in  so  far  as  such 
punishment  conduces  to  good  order.  Good  order,  how- 
ever, is  destroyed  once  for  all  by  mere  caprice.  Inevi- 
table are  such  outbursts  as  the  one  that  led  to  the  hang- 
ing of  Jenkins  and  of  Stuart  in  1851,  or  of  Casey  in 
1856 ;  inevitable,  namely,  when  the  reaction  in  favor  of 
good  order  involves  strong  passions  and  bitter  repent- 
ance at  once.  But  after  such  a  passion  has  cooled  a 
little,  to  deify  its  instrument,  the  Vigilance  Committee, 
or  to  glorify  its  law,  namely,  caprice,  —  this  is  not  inevi- 
table, and  is  criminal.  Yet  just  this  was  what  these  un- 
wise friends  of  the  committee  desired,  when  they  wanted 
the  Vigilance  Committee  to  undertake  all  God's  work  of 
vengeance  in  San  Francisco,  and  to  make  "  examples," 
without  regard  to  the  law  or  to  the  current  sense  of  hu- 
manity. Ballot-box  stuffing  could  not  be  cured  by 
hanging  this  or  that  man  ;  but  it  could  be  cured  by 
effective  popular  agitation.  And  the  committee  could 
and  did  agitate,  partly  by  investigating  and  exposing 
past  crimes  of  ballot-box  stuffing,  and  partly  by  under- 
taking to  banish,  with  threats  that  were  only  intended 
for  momentary  effect,  a  few  of  the  guilty  men.  The 
indirect  good  it  did  in  these  ways  is  certain  ;  for  thus 
the  public  was  instructed  in  the  seriousness  of  the  evils. 
Yet  not  only  in  this  matter  was  the  committee  tempted 
by  its  friends  to  go  beyond  bounds.  A  great  popular 
movement,  controlling  so  much  power,  and  organized  so 
well,  suggested  to  foolish  and  ambitious  persons  num- 
berless political  schemes.  There  were  the  old  grievances 
of  California  against  the  general  government :  the  afore- 
time long  delayed  payment  of  the  Fremont  war  claims, 


456  CALIFORNIA. 

the  still  pending  slow  and  uncertain  efforts  to  settle  the 
Spanish  land  titles,  the  imperfect  mail  service,  the  bur- 
densome tariff.  And  all  these  things  some  men  were 
now  disposed  to  bring  up,  and  such  men  would  suggest 
that,  with  some  more  independent  flag,  even  with  a  Bear 
Flag,  a  vigilance  committee  might  look  well.  Seces- 
sion had  occasionally  been  talked  of.  Why  not  make 
this  a  movement  to  gain,  by  at  least  a  bare  threat  of  se- 
cession, concessions  of  some  sort  from  Washington  au- 
thorities ?  If  such  concessions  should  be  refused,  why 
then  let  the  government  take  the  consequences. 

That  such  nonsense  was  actually  heard  in  some  men's 
talk  in  those  days  is  undoubted.  The  leaders  of  the 
committee  were  themselves  far  from  every  such  infl.u- 
ence,  but  the  rank  and  file  were  numerous,  and  the  for- 
eigners among  these,  the  Frenchmen  for  instance,  to- 
gether with  some  of  the  native  Calif ornians  themselves, 
took  delight  in  such  ideas,  all  of  which  were  dangerous 
in  the  highest  degree  to  the  good  order  of  the  whole 
movement.  Nor  were  all  the  Americans  concerned  by 
any  means  guiltless  in  this  matter.^ 

Not  only  such  wild-cat  politics  (as  one  may  venture 
not  too  disrespectfully  to  name  the  opinions  of  the  men 
who  talked  in  those  days  of  a  Pacific  Republic),  but  also 
many  less  umnoral  absurdities  vexed  the  committee  with 

1  The  frequent  letters  of  "  Caxton,"  in  the  Bulletin^  had  sometimes 
taken  openly  a  disunion  tone,  before  the  coming  on  of  the  crisis.  So, 
in  particular,  his  letter  published  April  9,  1856,  a  monument  of  the 
wordy  unwisdom  of  this  since  so  well-known  California  political  and 
literary  author.  Mr.  Coleman,  in  his  B.  MS.  statement,  speaks  of  the 
disunion  propositions  privately  made  to  the  committee  leaders,  and 
promptly  rejected.  Mr.  Osgood  speaks  to  the  same  effect  in  his  ora/ 
account  to  me.  The  prevalence  of  disunion  sentiments  among  certain 
classes  of  the  California  pioneers  in  the  years  before  the  war  would 
form  an  interesting  topic  for  a  special  research. 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.    467 

calls  for  attention.  In  the  course  of  its  career,  so  Mr. 
Coleman  tells  us,  the  committte  was  much  flattered  and 
troubled  by  invitations  to  act  as  High  Court  of  Justice 
to  settle  disputes  arising  in  the  interior  of  the  State,  or 
elsewhere  :  —  "  Not  only  criminals  from  distant  parts 
of  the  State,  but  all  kinds  of  acts  occurring  at  sea  were 
brought  before  us,  or  we  were  asked  to  undertake  their 
trial  and  punishment,  to  redress  wrongs,  personal  disa- 
greements, moral  misdemeanors,  social  irregularities, 
.  .  .  cases  of  fraud  in  money  matters  ...  family 
strifes  .  .  .  divorces."  The  committee  could  easily 
have  spent  many  months  or  years  upon  such  matters ; 
but  such  were  not  within  its  province. 

More  serious  difficulties  beset  the  committee  in  the 
direct  prosecution  of  its  chosen  tasks  of  purification. 
First  of  all,  in  order  to  have  even  the  most  moderate 
efficiency,  the  committee  had  to  arrest  and  confine  in  its 
own  quarters  certain  suspected  persons,  and  to  investi- 
gate in  secret  session  the  charges  of  election  frauds,  or 
of  other  oifenses,  made  against  them.  This  undertak- 
ing involved  many  risks,  and  made  for  the  committee 
many  new  enemies.  One  of  the  most  notorious  of  the 
earlier  prisoners  was  "  Yankee  Sullivan,"  who  is  said  to 
have  known  a  great  deal  about  the  conduct  of  recent 
elections  in  certain  wards,  and  who  was  pressed  by  the 
committee  for  some  days  with  questions  concerning 
ballot-box  stuffers.  The  poor  wretch  was  overcome 
with  terror  at  his  position,  fancied  that  he  was  to  be 
hanged,  and,  on  the  morning  of  May  31st,  committed 
suicide  in  his  room,  cutting  his  arm  with  a  case  knife 
and  bleeding  to  death.  While  no  suspicion  of  foul  play 
rested  on  the  committee  itself  in  connection  with  this 
ajffair,  one  could  not  help  seeing  that  such  an  occurrence 


458  CALIFORNIA. 

indicated  much  sternness  on  the  part  of  the  committee 
towards  its  prisoners,  either  in  questioning  or  in  threat- 
ening them,  or  in  both.  The  enemies  of  the  committee 
used  Sullivan's  name  thenceforth  freely  in  speaking  of 
the  arbitrary  acts  of  the  body,^  And  the  aforesaid 
loose  talk  of  the  friends  of  the  committee  gave  the  "  Law 
and  Order  "  people  some  just  cause  for  alarm.  The 
public  could  not  know  as  yet  how  conscientious  and 
cautious  the  leaders  of  the  executive  committee  for  the 
most  part  were,  nor  how  little  they  were  disposed  to 
shed  the  blood  of  any  save  murderers.  In  ignorance 
of  this  fact,  however,  the  "  Law  and  Order "  men  felt 
more  and  more  disposed  to  lead  a  reaction  against  the 
committee.  On  June  2d,  in  the  afternoon,  a  mass 
meeting  of  the  opponents  of  the  committee  was  called  to 
meet  on  the  Plaza ;  but  the  friends  of  the  committee 
came  also,  and  the  affair  was  both  disorderly  and  in- 
effective, although  no  worse  missiles  than  hard  words 
were  interchanged.  The  speakers  at  the  meeting  were 
all  lawyers,  Colonel  Baker  being  prominent  among 
them.  The  crowd  constantly  interrupted  the  proceed- 
ings, and  called  for  new  speakers,  or  denounced  the 
enemies  of  the  committee.  It  was  evident  where  the 
confidence  of  the  public  was  still  placed,  and  in  San 
Francisco  the  "Law  and  Order"  party  could  accom- 
plish nothing. 

Once  more,  then,  the  governor  was  called  upon  to  in- 
terfere, and  he  was  quite  willing,  although  by  no  means 
ready.      He    had    appointed    General    Sherman    com- 

1  Sullivan's  suicide  has  been  attributed,  by  certain  of  the  committee 
members,  to  something  resembling  delirium  tremens:  see  J.  S.  Hit. 
tell,  p.  252.  On  the  effect  of  this  and  other  occurrences  of  the  mo- 
ment upon  the  "Law  and  Order"  party,  see  Sherman,  p.  124  ;  ci 
TuthUl,  pp.  449,  450. 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.    459 

mander  of  the  second  division  of  the  state  militia,  and 
he  now  appealed  to  General  Wool,  United  States  com- 
mander in  the  department,  for  the  necessary  arms  and 
ammunition.  For,  as  the  committee  had  at  their  con- 
trol nearly  all  the  arms  in  San  Francisco,  the  State  had 
no  force  with  which  to  begin  operations  against  the 
rebels.  But  the  United  States  authorities  were  not  dis- 
posed to  take  part  in  the  domestic  troubles  of  Califor- 
nia without  definite  instructions  from  Washington. 
With  Commodore  Farragut,  commanding  the  navy  yard 
at  Mare  Island,  the  committee  had  in  fact  already  begun 
a  comparatively  friendly  correspondence,  to  assure  them- 
selves that  the  United  States  war  vessel  then  lying  in 
the  harbor  should  not  be  used,  unless  by  direct  orders 
from  a  superior  authority,  to  threaten  or  to  suppress 
them.  With  General  Wool  they  also  sought  to  remain 
on  good  terms.  He,  however,  seems  to  have  been  per- 
sonally opposed  to  the  committee,  and  in  conversation 
on  May  31st,  with  Governor  Johnson  and  other  state 
officials,  he  used  expressions  that  were  interpreteji  by 
the  latter  as  a  definite  promise  to  lend  arms  and  ammu- 
nition for  the  suppression  of  the  "  insurrection."  But 
upon  further  consideration,  Wool  felt  that  he  could  do 
nothing  without  orders  from  Washington,  and  said  so, 
in  writing,  to  the  great  disgust  of  the  "  Law  and  Order  " 
men,  and  of  the  governor  himself.^  The  governor  ac- 
cordingly dispatched  to  the  president  at  Washington  a 
request  for  help. 

1  For  facts  and  opinions  about  the  controversy  on  Wool's  supposed 
promise,  see  Sherman,  pp.  125,  126  ;  and  the  correspondence  between 
"Wool  and  Johnson  as  published  in  the  Sen.  Ex.  Doc.  43,  3d  Sess.  of 
43d  Congress.  For  Wool's  interpretation  of  his  own  rather  unguarded 
words  used  in  conversation  with  the  governor,  see  p.  7  of  this  cor- 
respondence; for  Johnson's  interpretation,  see  ib.  p.  24. 


460  CALIFORNIA. 

Meanwhile,  however,  Johnson  was  not  idle  at  home. 
On  June  3d  he  issued  a  proclamation,  declaring  the 
county  of  San  Francisco  in  a  state  of  insurrection,  and 
directing  "  all  persons  subject  to  military  duty  within 
said  county  to  report  themselves  for  duty  immediately 
to  Major-General  William  T.  Sherman,"  to  serve  under 
the  general's  orders  until  disbanded.  His  proclamation 
also  ordered  the  Vigilance  Committee  to  disperse.  A 
writ  of  the  state  supreme  court,  commanding  the  com- 
mittee to  give  up  the  body  of  one  of  its  prisoners,  was 
at  nearly  the  same  time  evaded  by  the  executive  com- 
mittee, who  concealed  for  the  time  their  prisoner  when 
the  officer  came  with  his  writ.  An  open  collision  with 
the  state  authorities  seemed  now  imminent.  It  was 
prevented  only  by  the  impotence  of  the  state  author- 
ities. Few  men  responded  to  the  governor's  call,  or 
appeared  to  obey  Sherman's  orders,  and  after  a  few 
days  Sherman  himself  met  the  governor  once  more  at 
Benicia,  and  reported  his  failure  to  raise  a  force.  At 
the  same  time  a  "  conciliation  committee  "  of  certain 
San  Francisco  citizens  who  were  not  members  of  the 
committee  came  to  meet  the  governor  at  the  same  place, 
seeking  to  arrange  some  sort  of  truce  between  the  hos- 
tile parties./ The  governor  himself  was  now  much 
under  the  influence  of  Chief  Justice  Terry  of  the  state 
supreme  court,  the  most  active  of  all  the  foes  of  the 
committee.  This  gentleman,  later  notorious  as  the 
slayer  of  Broderick,  and  already  prominent  as  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  ultra-Southern  element  in  California 
political  life,  was  outspoken  in  favor  of  open  war  against 
the  rebels,  whom,  according  to  Sherman,  he  neatly  de- 
scribed on  this  occasion  as  "  damned  pork-merchants," 
thereby  not  ineffectively  indicating,  after  all,  both  the 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.    461 

true  character  of  this  movement  as  a  Business  Man's 
Revolution,  and  his  own  true  character  as  a  despiser 
of  mere  business  men.  The  private  interview  of  the 
officials  after  they  had  seen  the  "  conciliation 
tee  "  was  not  fruitful  of  practical  devices.  General 
Sherman,  despairing  of  success  under  the  present  con- 
ditions, resigned  his  commission,  and  returned  to  his 
daily  business  in  San  Francisco.  The  governor  there^, 
after  appointed  Volney  E.  Howard  major-general  in  the 
place  of  Sherman,  and  the  efforts  to  raise  a  militia 
force  went  on.  To  the  very  end,  however,  they  were 
ineffective. 

The  committee,  meanwhile,  was  not  idle.  It  had  for 
some  time  begun  to  prepare  itself  for  a  collision  with  the 
state  authorities,  in  case  such  should  be  forced  upon  it. 
In  front  of  the  rooms  on  Sacramento  Street  the  mem- 
bers of  the  executive  committee  had  caused  to  be  made 
a  strong  barricade  of  sand-bags  (the  "  Fort  Gunnybags  " 
of  all  the  traditions  since  current  concerning  the  affair). 
This  they  had  armed  with  numerous  cannon.  Their 
small  arms  were  kept  within  doors,  their  guard  was 
always  strong  and  vigilant,  their  new  beU,  now  ready  on 
top  of  the  building,  could  summon  at  any  moment  their 
thousands  of  subordinate  members.  The  meetings  of 
this  always  small  but  energetic  and  authoritative  ex- 
ecutive committee  were  held  within  the  rooms  and  in 
secret.  The  thousands  of  the  members  of  the  general 
committee  had,  of  course,  their  natural  influence  upon 
the  conduct  of  the  executive  committee  ;  but  they  could 
not  determine  its  action,  and  they  were  pledged  to  obey 
its  orders. 

The  life  of  San  Francisco  during  the  following  weeks 
of  June  and  July  was  a  very  curious  one.     Ordinary 


462  CALIFORNIA. 

business,  indeed,  went  on  much  as  us'ial,  save  in  so  far 
as  its  undertakings  were  a  little  delayed  by  the  distrust 
of  capitalists,  or  by  the  engrossing  social  duties  that  so 
many  of  its  most  active  representatives  now  had  to  per- 
form. The  courts  sat  and  enforced  their  processes  as 
usual,  save  that  they  might  not  interfere  with  the  com- 
mittee itself.  The  respectable  enemies  of  the  committee 
went  about  openly,  working  and  talking  against  it";  but 
they  were  not  able  to  accomplish  anything.  Those 
rogues  who  feared  the  committee  had  for  the  most  part 
disappeared.  Order  prevailed  in  the  city.  But  mean- 
while the  grim  cannon  of  Fort  Gunnybags,  the  ceaseless 
and  secret  activity  of  the  executive  committee  within 
doors,  the  sensitiveness  of  the  public  to  every  hint  of 
danger,  and  the  occasional  events  or  rumors  of  a  start- 
ling sort,  showed  the  community  how  near  they  aU  the 
time  were  to  terrible  events.  -  No  wonder  that  the  re- 
solve constantly  grew  to  prevent  in  future,  by  every  hon- 
est means,  the  coming  of  another  such  crisis.  If  out- 
ward quiet  was  nearly  always  maintained,  distrust  of  the 
future,  doubt,  and  anxiety  were  always  present. 

Later  in  June  the  committee  caught  what  Mr.  Cole- 
man, in  his  statement,  calls  its  "  white  elephant,"  namely, 
Judge  Terry  himself.  The  courageous  and  violent  su- 
preme judge  could  not  bear  to  see  the  law  set  at  naught. 
He  came  to  San  Francisco  to  do  what  he  could  towards 
resisting  the  committee.  On  June  21st  he  did  actually 
interfere  with  an  attempted  arrest  that  some  of  the 
committee  "  police  "  were  making,  and  his  interference 
led  to  a  personal  encounter  between  him  and  one  of 
these  police,  Hopkins  by  name.  In  the  scuffle  Judge 
Terry  drew  a  knife,  and  stabbed  Hopkins.  The  alarm- 
bell  was  forthwith  sounded,  the  whole  general  committee 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.    463 

was  called  out,  and  Judge  Terry  was  arrested  and  taken 
to  the  fortress  on  Sacramento  Street,  amid  tremendous 
popular  excitement.  Some  arms  that  had  still  remained 
in  the  possession  of  "  Law  and  Order "  men  were  on 
this  occasion  seized,  a  large  number  of  that  party  were 
arrested,  and  the  day  closed  with  the  authority  of  the 
committee  more  undoubted  than  ever.  Hopkins,  mean- 
while, lay  seriously,  but  as  the  event  proved,  not  fatally, 
wounded.^ 

The  arrest  of  Judge  Terry  furnished  the  committee  a 
new  reason  for  remaining  in  power  some  time  longer. 
But  it  also  put  them  in  a  very  difficult  position.  If 
Hopkins  should  die,  one  could  only  with  great  difficulty 
avoid  hanging  Judge  Terry,  unless,  indeed,  one  was 
willing  to  abdicate,  and  leave  the  mob  to  hang  him  it- 
self. But  to  hang  by  popular  judgment  a  supreme 
judge  is  an  act  involving  certain  obviously  embarrassing 
responsibilities.  And  if,  as  later  actually  proved  to  be 
the  case,  Hopkins  should  not  die,  then  a  supreme  judge 
whom  one  could  not  effectively  banish,  nor  yet  imprison 
long,  whom  one  must  not  hang,  and  whom  one  could  not 
gracefully  release  without  any  punishment,  would  indeed 
be  a  "  white  elephant." 

In  the  sequel  the  committee  passed  anxious  weeks, 
discussing  the  case,  waiting  for  Hopkins  to  be  out  of 
danger,  and  reasoning  with  the  undaunted  prisoner,  who 
was  quite  as  certainly  a  good  fighter  as  he  was  a  bad 
supreme  judge.  It  is  probable  that  Judge  Terry  highly 
enjoyed  his  really  very  advantageous  position.  He  re- 
fused to  make  any  terms  with  the  executive  committee, 
which  was  finally  forced  to  release  him,  without  any 
other  punishment  than  was  involved  in  his  disagree- 
1  See  Bulletin  of  June  23d. 


464  CALIFORNIA. 

able  detention  in  Fort  Gunnybags  for  the  seven  weeks 
V         of  waiting  for  a  verdict.^    And  thus  the  greatest  danger 
of  the  committee's  existence  was  happily  passed. 

The  other  acts  of  the  committee,  its  only  further  ex- 
ecutions, those  of  Brace  and  Hetherington,  both  mur- 
derers,'^ its  curious  and  hardly  warranted  interference  in 
the  investigation  of  the  city  land  questions,  its  successful 
avoidance  of  all  open  contests  with  Federal  author- 
ities, and  its  final  parade  and  retirement  from  activity 
on  August  18th,  —  these  are  things  of  which  we  need 
not  speak  further  in  detail.  The  first  real  test  of  the 
success  of  the  committee  in  its  one  true  work,  which  was 
to  agitate  for  a  reform  in  municipal  society  and  politics, 
came  at  the  autumn  elections,  when  the  people  sustained 
the  whole  movement  by  electing  city  officers  to  carry  on 
in  a  legal  way  the  reform  which  had  been  begun  without 
the  law.  And  thenceforth,  for  years,  San  Francisco 
was  one  of  the  best  governed  municipalities  in  the 
United  States. 


1  "His  release,"  says  Mr.  J.  S.  Hittell,  p.  256,  "was  regarded  by 
some  persons  as  giving  power  to  the  most  formidable  enemy  of  the 
reform  movement."  The  first  bitter  disappointment  of  the  hot-headed 
friends  of  the  committee  is  vented  in  the  Bulletin  for  August  8,  1856, 
as  soon  as  the  release  is  announced.  The  blindness  of  these  hot- 
headed friends  was  often  something  marvelous. 

3  Brace  had  committed  a  murder  two  years  before.  Hetheringtoa 
killed  one  Dr.  Randall  in  a  quarrel,  July  24th.  Both  were  publicly 
hanged  July  29th,  after  a  fair  trial  before  the  executive  committee. 
Only  four  lives  were  thus  taken  by  this  committee,  all  of  known  mur- 
derers. The  only  other  punishment  inflicted  was  banishment,  im- 
posed upon  several  notoriously  bad  characters,  and  upon  a  few  con- 
victed ballot-box  stuffers.  And,  as  we  see,  the  rest  of  the  effective 
activity  of  the  committee  consisted  only  in  making  arrests,  in  detain- 
ing prisoners  for  examination,  in  investigating  the  topics  that  it  took 
under  consideration,  and  in  protecting  itself  against  threatened  i 
saults. 


m 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO.    465 


The  reader  will  hardly  ask,  after  all  we  have  said, 
for  any  lengthy  final  view  of  the  rights  and  wrongs  of 
this  greatest  of  the  popular  movements  in  California 
history.  Under  the  circumstances,  as  we  have  seen,  it 
was  inevitable.  What  had  made  it  inevitable  was  a  long 
continued  career  of  social  apathy,  of  treasonable  public 
carelessness.  What  it  represented  was  not  so  much  the 
dignity  of  the  sovereign  people,  as  the  depth  and  bitter- 
ness of  popular  repentance  for  the  past.  What  it  ac- 
complished was  not  the  direct  destruction  of  a  criminal 
class,  but  the  conversion  of  honest  men  to  a  sensible  and 
devout  local  patriotism.  What  it  teaches  to  us  now, 
both  in  California  and  elsewhere,  is  the  sacredness  of  a 
true  public  spirit,  and  the  great  law  that  the  people  who 
forget  the  divine  order  of  things  have  to  learn  thereof 
anew  some  day,  in  anxiety  and  in  pain. 

With  the  improvement  of  municipal  business  the 
moral  and  intellectual  progress  of  society  did  not  alto- 
gether keep  pace.  If  one  learned  the  importance  of 
public  spirit,  one  did  not  learn  for  many  years  to  devote 
enough  time  to  the  higher  human  interests.  But  at  all 
events  the  essentials  of  civilization  had  been  fought  for 
and  gained  ;  and  the  San  Franciscan  was  thenceforth 
free  to  serve  God  as  his  own  conscience  dictated. 
30 


CHAPTER  VI. 

LAND-TITLES   AND   POLITICS. 

In  treating  of  the  period  that  followed  the  constitu- 
tional convention,  we  have  thus  far  dealt  mainly  with 
the  local  occurrences  of  the  golden  days,  and  have  said 
little  of  the  general  problems  of  the  State  at  large. 
The  struggle  for  order,  in  the  mines,  in  San  Francisco, 
and  in  all  the  lesser  commercial  towns,  rapidly  devel- 
oped the  character  of  the  new  California  population, 
and  so  produced  everywhere  alike  that  much-enduring, 
often  rash,  always  toilsome  race  of  the  pioneers,  with 
their  well-known  over-confidence  in  short  and  easy  so- 
cial methods,  with  their  not  less  noteworthy  shrewdness 
in  controlling  their  own  social  excesses,  and  with  their 
remarkable  power  of  organizing  quickly  for  the  purpose 
either  of  defending  the  established  authorities,  if  these 
should  meet  their  approval,  or  of  setting  the  authorities 
aside,  if  these  should  seem  to  them  dangerously  ineffi- 
cient. But  if  this  character  grew  rapidly  under  the  va- 
rious local  influences,  the  future  of  the  State  at  large 
must  be  affected  very  greatly  by  the  further  conditions 
that  determined  not  so  much  the  character  as  the  for- 
tunes of  the  population  of  the  whole  country.  Of  these 
conditions  the  first  was  the  state  of  the  land  tenure  in 
all  the  most  promising  agricultural  regions  of  the  new 
State. 


LAND-TITLES  AND  POLITICS.  467 

I.     EARLY    LAND-TROUBLES. 

The  uncertainty  of  tlie  land-titles  at  the  time  of  the 
cong[uest,  and  dunng  the  interregixum,  we  have  already, 
in  some  fashion,  studied.  How  significant  all  this  must 
be  for  the  future  of  the  State,  is  evident  at  a  glance. 
The  future  California  must  needs  be  an  agricultural 
province,  whatever  the  gold  excitement  might  for  the 
time  make  the  country  seem.  And  that  its  land-titles 
should  soon  be  settled,  and  in  an  honest  way,  was  an  es- 
sential of  all  true  progress.  How  the  people  came  to  a 
consciousness  of  this  fact,  and  how  this  consciousness 
entered  into  certain  deeds  of  the  struggle  for  order, 
we  can  only  sketch  in  this  connection.  The  wild 
schemes  of  the  early  interregnum  had  passed  away 
with  time,  but  the  new-comers  of  the  gold-period  were 
subject  to  somewhat  similar  illusions  and  dangers.  If 
things  had  appeared  as  they  did  to  the  comparatively 
small  group  of  Americans  in  the  dawn  of  our  life  here, 
even  before  the  gold  discovery,  how  long  should  this 
complex  spider-web  of  land-titles,  wherewith  a  Calif orma" 
custom  or  caprice  had  covered  a  great  part  of  the  terri- 
tory," outlast  the  trampling  of  the  busy  immigrants? 
"Vviio  shouldjresist  these  strange  men  ?  The  slowly  mov- 
^ng  processes  of  the  courts  —  how  could  they,  in  time, 
cfel^n^he  rapacity  of  American  settlers,  before  the  mis- 
clii^f  should  once  for  all  be  done,  and  the  memory  of 
t]iesejb<nd-titles  burled  under  an  almost  universal  pred- 
atory disregard  of  them,  which  would  make  the  recov- 
ery of  the  land  by  Its  legal  owners  too  expensive  anlin- 
dertaklng  to  be  even  thought  of?  The  answer  to  this 
question  suggests  at  once  how,  amid  all  the  injustice  of 
JMir  treatment  of  Californian  land-owners,  our  whole  his* 


468  CALIFORNIA. 

tory  has  illustrated  the  enormous  vitality  of  formally 
lawful  ownership  in  land.  This  delicate  web,  that  our 
strength  could  seemingly  so  easily  have  trampled  out  of 
existence  at  once,  became  soon  an  iron  net.     The  more 

^  we  struggled  with  it,  the  more  we  became  involved  in  its 
meshes.     Infinitely  more  have  we  suffered  in  trying  to 

.  escape  from  it,  than  we  should  have  suffered,  had  we 
never  made  a  struggle.  Infinitely  more  sorrow,  jiot  to 
speak  of  blood,  has  it  cost  us  to  try  to  get  rid  of  our  old 
obligations  to  the  Californian  land-owners,  than  it  would 
have  cost  us  to  grant  them  all  their  original  demands, 
just  and  unjust,  at  once.  Doubt,  insecurity,  retarded 
j)rogress,  litigation  without  end,  hatred,  destruction  of 
property,  bloodshed,  —  all  these  have  resulted  for  usfjom 
the  fact  tliat  we  tried  as  much  as  we  did  to  defraud 
these  Californians  of  the  rights  that  we  guarantied  to 

^  them  atthe  moment  of  the  conquest.  And  in  the  end, 
with  all  our  toil,  we  escaped  not  from  the  net,  and  it 
binds  our  land-seekers  still. 

At  all  events,  however,  the  critical  character  of  the 
situation  of  Califbriiia  land-owners  at  the  moment  o£, 
the  coming  of  the  gold-seekers  appears  plain.  That  all 
the  rights  of  the  Californians  should  ultimately  be  re- 
spected was,  indeed,  in  view  of  our  rapacious  Anglo- 
Saxon  land-hunger,  and  of  our  national  bigotry  in  deal- 
ing with  Spanish  Americans,  impossible.  But  there 
were  still  two  courses  that  our  population  might  take 
with  regard  to  the  land.  One  would  be  the  just-men- 
tioned simple  plan  of  a  universal  squatters'  conspiracy. ; 
Had  we  agreed  to  disregard  the  land-titles  by  a  sort  of 
popular  fiat,  then,  ere  the  courts  could  be  appealed  to 
and  the  method  of  setthng  the  land-titles  ordained  by 
Congress,  the  disregard  of   the  claims  of  the   natives 


LAND-TITLES  AND  POLITICS.  469 

might  have  gone  so  far  in  many  places  as  to  render  any 
general  restitution  too  expensive  a  luxury  to  be  profitable. 
This  procedure  would  have  been  analogous  to  that  fash- 
ion of  dealing  with  Indian  reservations  which  our  hon- 
est settlers  have  frequently  resorted  to.  Atrociously 
wicked  as  such  a  conspiracy  would  have  been,  we  our- 
selves, as  has  been  suggested  above,  should  have  been  in 
the  long  run  the  greatest  sufferers,  because  the  conspiracy 
could  not  have  been  successful  enough  to  preserve  us 
from  fearful  confusion  of  titles,  from  litigation  and  war- 
fare without  end.  Yet  this  course,  as  we  shall  see,  was 
practically  the  course  proposed  by  the  Sacramento 
squatters  of  1850,  and  for  a  time  the  balance  hesitated 
between  the  choice  of  this  and  of  the  other  course.  The 
other  course  we  actually  adopted,  and  it  was  indeed  the 
one  peculiarly  fitted  to  express  just  our  national  mean- 
ness and  love  of  good  order  in  one.  This  was  the  plan 
of  legal  recognition  and  equally  legal  spoliation  of  the 
Calif ornians  —  a  plan  for  which,  indeed,  no  one  man  was 
responsible,  since  the  cooperation  of  the  community  at 
large  was  needed,  and  obtained,  to  make  the  Land  Act 
of  1851  an  instrument  for  evil  and  not  for  good.  The* 
"  devil's  instrument  it  actually  proved  to  be,  by  our 
friendly  cooperation,  and  we  have  got  our  full  share  of 
the  devil's  wages  for  our  use  of  it.  But  bad  as  this 
second  course  was,  it  was  far  better  than  the  first,  as  in 
general  the  meanness  and  good  order  of  an  Anglo- 
Saxon  community  of  money-seekers  produce  better  re- 
sults than  the  bolder  rapacity  and  less  legal  brutality  of 
certain  other  conquering  and  overbearing  races. 

In  the  winter  of  1849  and  in  the  spring  of  1850  our 
rapacity  first  became  noticeable  under  the  new  condi- 
tions.    As  it  happened,  the  city  of   Sacramento  grew 


470  CALIFORNIA. 

up  on  land  near  Sutter's  Fort,  and,  of  course,  within  the 
boundaries  of  Sutter's  own  grant  of  land,  which  he  had 
received  from  Governor  Alvarado  in  1841.  In  the  first 
months  of  the  town's  life,  numerous  lots  of  land  were 
sold  under  this  title,  and  those  who  acquired  the  new 
property  profited,  of  course,  very  greatly  by  the  rapid 
growth  of  the  place.  But  by  the  winter  of  1849  there 
were  enough  landless,  idle,  and  disappointed  wanderers 
present  in  Sacramento  to  make  the  existence  of  land 
ownership  thereabouts  appear  to  these  persons  as  an 
intolerable  burden,  placed  upon  the  necks  of  the  poor 
by  rapacious  land-speculators.  Such  reflections  are,  of 
course,  the  well-known  expressions  of  human  avarice 
and  disappointment  everywhere  in  the  world.  Here 
they  assumed,  however,  a  new  and  dangerous  form. 
One  asked,  "  How  comes  it  that  there  is  any  ownership 
of  land  in  this  golden  country  at  all  ?  Is  this  not  a  free 
land  ?  Is  it  not  our  land  ?  Is  not  the  public  domain 
free  to  all  American  citizens  ?  "  The  very  simple  answer 
was,  of  course,  that  this  land  was  not  public  domain,  but 
Sutter's  former  land,  sold  by  him,  in  the  free  exercise 
of  his  rights,  to  the  founders  of  Sacramento.  And  this 
answer  was,  moreover,  especially  significant  in  this  par- 
ticular case.  For  Sutter's  ownership  of  "  New  Helvetia  " 
was,  by  this  time,  a  matter,  so  to  speak,  of  world-wide 
notoriety.  The  young  Captain  Fremont's  "Report," 
which,  in  various  shapes  and  editions,  had  years  before 
become  so  popular  a  book,  and  which  the  gold-fever 
made  more  popular  than  ever,  had  distinctly  described 
Sutter  as  the  notorious  and  indisputable  owner  of  this 
ta*act  of  land  in  1844.  If  occupancy  without  any  rival 
for  a  term  of  years  could  make  the  matter  clear  to  a 
new-comer,  Sutter's  title  to  his  "  establishment "  seemed 


LAND-TITLES  AND   POLITICS.  471 

beyond '  shadow.  Moreover,  the  title-papers  of  the 
Alvarado  grant  were  on  record.  Governor  Alvarado's 
authority  to  grant  eleven  leagues  to  Sutter  was  indubita- 
ble, and  none  the  less  clear  seemed  the  wording  of  the 
grant,  when  it  gave  certain  outer  boundaries  within 
which  the  tract  granted  was  to  be  sought,  and  then  de- 
fined the  grant  so  as  to  include  the  "  establishment  at 
New  Helvetia."  Surely,  one  would  say,  no  new-comer 
could  attack  Sutter's  right,  save  by  means  of  some  purely 
agrarian  contention.  A  settler  might  demand  that  all 
unused  land  in  California  should  be  free  to  every  settler, 
and  that  Mexican  land-ownership  should  be  once  for  all 
done  away  with.  But  unless  a  man  did  this,  what  could 
he  say  against  Sutter's  title  to  New  Helvetia  ? 

The  complaining  idlers  in  Sacramento  were,  however, 
quite  equal  to  the  task  of  overthrowing  this  argument. 
What,  after  all,  was  a  Mexican  title  worth  beside  the 
rights  of  an  American  citizen  ?  This  grant  of  Sutter's 
might  indeed  be  a  test  case,  but  then  so  much  the  more 
must  the  test  determine  the  worthlessness  of  all  Mexican 
pretensions.  The  big  Mexican  grant  was  to  this  new 
party  of  agitators,  who  already  delighted  to  call  them- 
selves "  squatters,"  an  obviously  un-American  institution, 
a  creation  of  a  benighted  people.  What  was  the  good 
of  the  conquest,  if  it  did  not  make  our  enlightened 
American  ideas  paramount  in  the  country?  Unless, 
then.  Congress,  by  some  freak,  should  restore  to  these 
rapacious  speculators,  the  heirs  of  a  justly  conquered 
and  dispossessed  race,  their  old  benighted  legal  status, 
they  would  have  no  land.  Meanwhile,  of  course,  the 
settlers  were  to  be  as  well  off  as  the  others.  So  their 
thoughts  ran. 

Intelligent  men  could  hold  this  view  only  in  case  they 


472  CALIFORNIA. 

had  already  deliberately  determined  that  the  new-com- 
ing population,  as  such,  ought  to  have  the  chief  legal 
rights  in  the  country.  This  view  was,  after  all,  a  very 
obvious  one.  Providence,  you  see,  and  manifest  destiny 
were  understood  in  those  days  to  be  on  our  side,  and 
absolutely  opposed  to  the  base  Mexican.  Providence, 
again,  is  known  to  be  opposed  to  every  form  of  oppres- 
sion ;  and  grabbing  eleven  leagues  of  land  is  a  great 
oppression.  And  so  the  worthlessness  of  Mexican  land- 
titles  is  evident. 

Of  course  the  squatters  would  have  disclaimed  very 
generally  so  naked  a  statement  as  this  of  their  position. 
But  when  we  read  in  one  squatter's  card  ^  that  "  surely 
Sutter's  grant  does  not  entitle  to  a  monopoly  of  all  the 
lands  in  California,  which  were  purchased  by  the  treas- 
ure of  the  whole  nation,  and  by  no  small  amount  of  the 
best  blood  that  ever  coursed  or  ran  through  American 
veins,"  the  same  writer's  formal  assurance  that  Sutter 
ought  to  have  his  eleven  leagues  whenever  they  can  be 
found  and  duly  surveyed  cannot  blind  us  to  the  true 
spirit  of  the  argument.  What  has  this  "  best  blood  "  to 
do  with  the  Sutter  grant  ?  The  connection  in  the 
writer's  mind  is  only  too  obvious.  He  means  that  the 
"  best  blood  "  won  for  us  a  right  to  harass  great  land- 
owners. In  another  of  these  expressions  of  squatter 
opinion  I  have  found  the  assertion  that  the  land  specula- 
tors stand  on  a  supposed  old  Mexican  legal  right  of  such 
as  themselves  to  take  up  the  whole  territory  of  California, 
in  sections  of  eleven  leagues  each,  by  some  sort  of  Mex- 
ican preemption.  If  a  squatter  persists  in  understanding 
the  land-owners'  position  in  this  way,  his  contempt  for 

*  Published  during  a  later  stage  of  the  controversy,  in  the  Sacra- 
mento Transcript  for  June  21,  1850. 


LAND-TITLES  AND  POLITICS.  473 

it  is  as  natural  as  his  willful  determination  to  make 
game  of  all  native  Californian  claims  is  obvious. 

The  squatter  party,  as  it  appeared  in  the  winter  of 
1849  in  Sacramento,  was  encouraged  to  develop  its 
ideas  by  reason  of  the  unsettled  condition  of  the  country. 
It  was  easy  for  men  to  feel  that  in  this  land,  where  no 
very  definite  government  yet  existed,  where  even  the 
new  state,  before  its  admission,  must  seem  of  doubtfully 
legal  character,  every  man  might  do  what  seemed  right 
to  himself  and  every  new  party  might  propose  any  view, 
however  subversive  of  good  government.  A  respect  for 
the  old  Californian  order  of  things  was  not  yet  devel- 
oped ;  a  new-comer  was  often  hardly  conscious  that 
there  ever  had  been  an  old  order.  And  when  one  heard 
about  it  from  the  men  of  the  interregnum,  one  also  heard 
the  cruelly  false  tale,  begotten  of  the  era  of  our  conquest, 
about  the  injustice,  the  treachery,  and  the  wickedness  of 
the  old  government  and  people.  One  felt,  therefore, 
well  justified  in  wishing  a  new  and  American  order  of 
things  to  replace  every  relic  of  Mexican  wretchedness. 
And,  just  because  such  conquest  as  this  of  California 
was  a  new  experience  in  our  short  national  history,  one 
was  often  wholly  unmindful  of  the  simple  and  obvious 
principles  according  to  which  the  conqueror  of  a  country 
does  not,  by  virtue  of  his  conquest,  either  dispossess 
private  land-owners,  or  deprive  the  inhabitants  of  any 
other  of  their  private  rights.  One  was,  in  fact,  so  ac- 
customed to  our  atrocious  fashion  of  conquering,  dispos- 
sessing, and  then  exterminating  Indian  tribes,  that  one 
was  too  much  disposed,  a  priori,  to  think  of  our  conquest 
of  California  as  exemplifying  the  same  cruel  process. 

The  first  scenes  of  the  land  agitation  at  Sacramento 
in  the  winter  of   1849-50  have  been  but  imperfectly 


474  CALIFORNIA. 

described  for  us.  Bayard  Taylor  mentions  them  briefly, 
and  so  does  a  later  correspondent  of  the  "  New  York 
Tribune."  ^  A  recent  article  of  my  own  on  the  topic  ^ 
has,  since  its  publication,  called  out  some  very  interest- 
ing contemporary  letters  which  a  pioneer,  now  living  in 
Oakland,  CaL,  has  preserved,  and  which  bring  the  scenes 
of  the  early  agitation  well  before  us.  I  make  one  ex- 
tract from  them  here.  They  were  published  in  a  late 
number  of  the  "  San  Francisco  Bulletin  "  :  — 

"  I  will  endeavor,"  says  the  writer  of  the  letter,  him- 
self a  new-comer  in  Sacramento,  who  is  addressing  an 
Eastern  friend,  "  to  give  you  some  idea  of  life  in  Sacra- 
mento, by  relating  some  events  that  occurred  this  even- 
ing: It  is  rather  a  dark  one,  and  walking  along  the 
levee  requires  some  care  to  avoid  falling  over  the  nu- 
merous obstructions,  but  it  was  a  political  meeting  that  I 
stumbled  into  as  I  passed  up  R  Street.  That  you  may 
understand  the  state  of  things,  I  will  explain  a  little  ; 
the  question  of  land-titles  and  squatter's  rights  is  just 
now  greatly  agitating  the  public  mind.  In  several  in- 
stances where  men  have  squatted  upon  land  without  the 
precincts  of  the  city,  others  have  pretended  to  own  it 
and  ordered  them  o£F,  and  in  one  case  the  city  authori- 
ties, on  a  man's  refusal  to  vamose,  sent  a  force  and 
puDed  down  his  shanty. 

"  Last  Saturday  evening  a  meeting  of  squatters  was 

1  See  the  number  of  May  22,  1850. 

2  Published  in  the  Overland  Monthly  for  September,  1885,  and 
originally  intended  as  a  chapter  of  the  present  volume.  The  subject, 
however,  quite  outgrew  the  limits  of  this  book,  and  while  I  have  made 
one  or  two  extracts  from  the  article  in  my  text  here,  I  am  obliged,  for 
the  most  part,  merely  to  refer  the  reader  to  this  somewhat  detailed 
etudy  of  the  events  that  led  up  to  the  *'  squatter  riot  of  1850  in  Sacra., 
mento." 


LAND-TITLES  AND  POLITICS.  475 

held  out-doors.  I  was  not  present,  but  hear  that  much 
opposition  was  expressed  to  the  measures  adopted  by  the 
city  officers,  some  of  whom  were  present,  and  replied  in 
no  very  courteous  terms.  The  meeting  this  evening  was 
intended  as  an  opposition  to  the  other,  and  styled  '  Law 
and  Order.'  The  speaker's  stand  was  on  some  boxes 
piled  up  against  the  '  Gem,'  a  bowling,  drinking,  and 
gambling  saloon.  A  board  nailed  against  it,  about  even 
with  the  speakers'  heads,  supported  a  row  of  candles, 
which  burned  without  a  flicker,  so  still  was  the  air.  A 
large  and  democratic  crowd  were  assembled.  A  com- 
mittee was  appointed  to  draw  up  resolutions,  which  were 
read.  In  the  preamble  the  squatters  were  spoken  of  as 
having  acted  lawlessly  and  in  contempt  of  the  authori- 
ties. The  substance  of  the  resolutions  was  that  the  city 
council  should  be  sustained  at  all  events ;  that  a  com- 
mittee should  be  appointed  to  proceed  to  Monterey  and 
obtain  a  copy  of  J.  A.  Sutter's  title  to  the  land  claimed 
by  him,  attested  to  by  the  governor  of  California. 

"  This  land  comprises  most  of  the  territory  on  which 
the  city  is  built.  They  were  read  with  much  interrup- 
tion, and  on  the  question  being  put,  indignantly  rejected. 

"  At  this  juncture,  another  speaker  arose,  and  com- 
menced, but  was  interrupted  with  cries  of  'Your 
name?'  'My  name  is  Zabriskie,'  he  replied.  In  a 
respectful  manner  he  avowed  his  determination  to  speak 
his  sentiments,  and  beginning  with  the  hand-bills  which 
had  been  printed,  calling  a  meeting  to  sustain  "  law  and 
order  "  in  the  community,  he  considered  it  an  insult  to 
the  people  to  suppose  that  any  were  otherwise  inclined. 
Then,  in  regard  to  the  preamble,  which  spoke  contempt- 
uously of  '  squatters,'  in  an  eloquent  speech  he  asked 
who  carried  the    '  Stars  and  Stripes,*   the  institutions 


476  CALJFORN-IA. 

and  laws  of  our  land  into  the  far  West,  and  have  now 
borne  them  even  to  the  shores  of  the  far-off  Pacific  ? 
Then  arose  from  the  crowd  the  reply,  *  Squatters.^ 

"  He  then  moved  that  this  preamble  be  rejected,  and 
the  motion  was  carried  without  a  dissenting  voice.  So 
he  went  on  with  each  resolution,  speechifying  and  mov- 
ing that  some  be  rejected,  some  adopted,  and  some 
amended,  most  of  his  motions  being  carried  unanimously, 
making  altogether  a  different  set  of  resolutions  than  the 
projectors  had  calculated  upon.  He  went  strongly  for 
sustaining  the  authorities  in  carrying  out  such  just  laws 
as  they  should  enact.  On  the  resolution  which  so  read, 
he  experienced  much  opposition,  the  sovereign  people 
being  extremely  jealous  that  laws  should  be  made,  which, 
however  just  in  the  eyes  of  their  makers,  would  be  other- 
wise in  their  view.  He  contended  that  a  man  might 
squat  where  he  pleased,  and  leave  for  nobody  who  could 
not  show  a  better  title  than  himself  ;  that  when  a  judi- 
ciary was  appointed  over  the  State  was  the  time  to  de- 
cide the  validity  of  titles,  until  which  time,  society 
would  be  benefited,  the  squatter  would  be  benefited,  the 
land,  and  consequently,  the  owner,  whoever  he  was, 
would  be  benefited  by  its  being  brought  under  cultiva- 
tion." 

After  the  river  flood  of  January,  1850,  had  passed 
over  the  town  of  Sacramento,  the  quarrel  was  tempora- 
rily suspended,  especially  by  the  prosperous  opening  of 
the  spring  of  1850,  which  sent  many  of  the  malcontents 
early  to  the  mines.  But  persistent  spring  floods  forced 
many  of  these  to  return  afresh  to  the  now  once  more 
prosperous  city.  The  discontent  broke  out  again,  and 
the  title-papers  of  Sutter's  grant,  when  once  found  and 
published,  were  soon  made  the  subject  of  very  bitter 


LAND-TITLES  AND  POLITICS.  477 

and  unfair  quibbles  and  quasi-legal  objections.  By  the 
beginning  of  summer  the  squatter  movement  had  be- 
come formidable  in  Sacramento  and  in  the  adjacent 
country.  Its  followers  had  organized  an  association, 
had  begun  a  regular  system  of  squatting  on  all  vacant 
lots  in  and  near  the  town,  and  were  already  planning 
every  even  remotely  feasible  sort  of  resistance  to  the 
real  owners  who  held  under  the  Sutter  title.  As  Con- 
gress had  still  done  nothing  to  settle  titles  in  California, 
and  as  the  State  had  not  yet  been  admii4;ed,  the  squat- 
ters had  the  effrontery  to  pretend  in  their  public  utter- 
ances that  there  was  no  legal  support  actually  in  exist- 
ence for  the  Californian  grants.  They  declared  that 
even  the  legislature,  which  had  already  once  met,  had 
had  no  business  to  pass  laws  bearing  on  the  subject  of 
land.  Still  less,  they  said,  had  the  so-called  city  of  Sac- 
ramento, in  its  corporate  capacity,  any  right  to  interfere 
with  squatters.  And  as  for  the  processes  of  state 
courts,  if  worst  came  to  worst,  these  must  be  defied. 
Breathing  out  such  threatenings,  the  squatters  met  fre- 
quently during  the  summer,  in  a  more  or  less  public 
fashion.  They  excited  the  attention  of  many  in  other 
parts  of  the  State,  and  the  alarm  of  all  wiser  men  that 
appreciated  their  purposes.  They  were  ably  led. 
Among  others.  Dr.  Charles  Robinson,  of  Fitchburg,  Mas- 
sachusetts, later  so  prominent  as  governor  of  Kansas, 
was  especially  noteworthy  as  a  squatter  leader.  His 
conscientious  motives  in  supporting  the  squatter  doc- 
trine, his  sagacity  in  conducting  the  movement,  and  his 
personal  courage  in  forcing  it  to  an  issue,  are  all  obvious^ 
Obvious  also  is  his  wicked  and  dangerous  use  in  this 
connection  of  the  then  current  abstractions  about  the 
absolute  rights  of  Man  and  the  higher  will  of  God,  to- 


478  CALIFORNIA. 

gether  with  his  diabolical  activity  in  resisting  the  true 
will  of  God,  which  was  of  course  at  that  time  and  place 
simply  the  good  order  of  California.  Every  moral  force, 
every  force,  namely,  that  worked  for  the  real  future 
prosperity  of  the  new  commonwealth,  was  ipso  facto 
against  these  lawless  squatters.  The  "  land-speculators," 
whom  they  directly  attacked,  were  indeed  as  greedy  for 
gold  as  anybody  in  California,  and  were  as  such  no  more 
worthy  of  esteem  than  their  even  Christians.  But  these 
speculators  chanced,  in  just  that  case,  to  represent  both  1 
the  old  Californian  order  of  things,  which  we  were  bound  ■ 
in  sacred  honor  to  respect,  and  the  majesty  of  the  new- 
born State  as  well,  to  which  every  citizen  owed  the  most 
devout  allegiance,  so  long  as  he  should  dwell  within  its 
borders.  To  these  two  great  obligations  the  squatters 
were  traitors,  and  their  movement  was  unfortunately  the 
father  of  much  more  treason,  which  showed  the  same 
turpitude,  if  not  the  same  frankness. 

But,  for  the  time,  they  were  unable  to  do  more  than 
to  bring  about  a  riot,  and  a  consequent  reaction  of  pop- 
ular feeling  against  themselves  ;  a  reaction  which  ended 
the  possibility  of  any  general  predatory  conspiracy 
throughout  the  State  against  the  old  land-titles,  and 
which  therefore  introduced  the  squatter  movement  to  the 
second  stage  of  its  sinful  life,  so  that  it  became  thence- 
forth no  longer  an  open  public  enemy,  but  a  treacherous 
corrupter  of  legislation,  and  a  persistent  pettifogger  in 
the  courts  of  justice.  The  cause  of  the  riot  was  this : 
In  August,  1850,  the  squatters  were  deeply  disappointed 
at  an  adverse  decision  in  a  suit  of  some  importance 
brought  against  one  of  their  number.  Angry  and  defi- 
ant, they  were  disposed  to  take  the  advice  of  Dr.  Rob- 
inson, and  to  appear  in  force  and  armed  in  the  streets 


LAND-TITLES  AND  POLITICS.  479 

of  Sacramento,  and  to  resist  by  violence  and  forth- 
with all  court  processes  served  upon  any  of  them.  A 
stormy  Saturday  night  mass -meeting  was  devoted  to 
threats  of  this  sort.  Only  about  forty,  however,  were 
finally  bold  enough  to  follow  Dr.  Robinson  to  battle  on 
August  14.  The  land-owners,  fencouraged  by  the  vigor- 
ous orders  of  the  mayor,  improvised  a  posse  on  the 
streets,  at  the  sight  of  the  armed  rioters;  and  a  col- 
lision took  place  in  the  effort  to  disperse  the  squatter 
party.  Shots  were  exchanged,  three  men  were  killed, 
one  of  them  a  squatter  -  leader,  and  one  the  city  as- 
sessor ;  and  five  persons  (including  Dr.  Robinson)  were 
wounded.  The  city  was  thrown  into  the  wildest  excite- 
ment, popular  indignation  was  aroused  to  a  white  heat, 
and  no  squatter  was  for  the  time  safe  within  the  limits 
of  the  town ;  for  the  large  neutral  floating  population, 
no  less  than  the  people  dependent  for  their  business  life 
upon  the  regular  land-owners,  were  now  alike  deter- 
mined to  put  an  end  to  the  disturbance.  News  of  the 
affair  traveled  quickly  through  the  State  ;  militia  has- 
tened to  Sacramento  from  San  Francisco,  an  exagger- 
ated alarm  spread  through  the  country  for  a  few  days, 
and  the  agitation  of  the  summer  of  1850  was  for  the 
time  quickly  put  down.^ 

The  public  dread  of  the  squatters,  also,  of  course  died 
away  as  quickly,  and  with  it  much  of  the  momentary 
popular  indignation.     Nobody  had  time  in  California  to 

1  In  the  article  above  referred  to,  the  fatal  encounter  of  the  day 
after  the  riot,  an  encounter  in  which  the  sheriff  of  the  county  was 
killed,  together  with  two  or  three  of  the  opposing  party,  is  also  de- 
scribed ;  and  the  scenes  of  the  crisis  are  in  general  recounted  in  a  de- 
tailed manner  not  here  possible.  Dr.  Robinson  himself  recovered 
from  his  wounds,  escaped  any  effective  prosecution,  was  elected  to  the 
legislature  of  1851,  and  left  the  State  in  the  following  summer. 


480  CALIFORNIA. 


SP 


^ 
><■ 


reflect  on  the  true  significance  of  such  movements, 
although  the  riot  had  once  for  all  made  open  and  wide- 
spread violence  an  impossible  device,  there  was  still  a 
chance  for  the  squatters,  in  the  second  stage  of  their 
movement,  to  form  a  so-called  Settlers'  Party,  and  to 
agitate  in  a  less  violent  way  for  state  or  national  legisla- 
tion in  their  favor.  At  Sacramento  they  remained,  by 
dint  of  litigious  persistence  and  of  political  agitation,  a 
serious  practical  vexation  for  many  years,  until  the 
Sutter  title  was  finally  confirmed,  the  grant  surveyed, 
and  a  government  patent  given  for  the  land. 

11.  THE  NATIVE  POPULATION,  AND  THE  LATER  STRUG- 
GLE FOR  THE  LAND. 

From  direct  and  general  assault  by  violence  the  Mex- 
ican grants  as  a  body  were  thus  erelong  safe,  however 
numerous  might  be  the  affrays  that  from  time  to  time 
would  take  place  over  one  or  another  of  them.  But 
many  were  the  troubles  through  which  they  were  yet  to 
pass,  and  we  in  California  ourselves  with  them. 

Three  rou£hly_ defined  classes  may  be  named  into 
which  the  land  claims  of  the  Calif omians_mi§ht-i>^-dis — 
tinguished.  There  were,  first,  the  clainis_that-wer«-ob- 
vipusly  and  notoriously  valid.  Such  were  the  claims-  of 
individuals  or  of  families  that  had  for  many  years  lived 
on  their  estates,  in  undisputed  ownership,  their  titles 
being  also  recorded  in  the  archives.  Against  such 
claims  no  merely  technical  objections  ought  to  have  re- 
ceived a  moment's  hearing.  The  sole  problem  in  such 
cases,  in  itself  often  difficult  enough  indeed,  was  to  dis- 
tinguish by  a  just  survey  the  boundaries  of  these  claims 
from  the  surrounding  public  lands.  For,  in  the  old 
days,  it  had  been  customary  to  grant  land  in  parcels  of 


LAND-TITLES  AND  POLITICS.  481 

eleven  leagues  or  less,  but  without  any  exact  definition 
of  the  boundaries.  Outside  boundaries  were  named, 
within  which  the  tract  granted  was  to  be  found  ;  and 
questions  might  often  arise  concerning  the  proper  posi- 
tion of  the  grant  within  these  boundaries.  Only  in  such 
cases  as  Sutter's,  where  an  "  establishment,"  or  an  exist- 
ent dwelling,  was  mentioned  in  the  grant,  as  already  ex- 
istent, and  as  included  in  the  tract  granted,  could  the 
situation  of  the  grant,  at  least  in  part,  be  forthwith  de- 
termined. In  other  cases  the  problems  of  the  survey 
might  have  all  degrees  of  vagueness.  Still,  concerning 
the  actual  right  of  the  grantee  to  the  amount  of  land  de- 
scribed in  his  grant,  and,  under  any  survey,  to  that  por- 
tion of  his  claim  which  immediately  surrounded  and  in- 
cluded both  his  own  dwelling  and  the  lands  that  he  had 
long  and  without  question  occupied  under  his  grant ; 
concerning  all  this  right  there  could  be  no  shadow  of 
doubt.  Such  rights  should  have  been  simply  and 
promptly  confirmed. 

A  second  class  of  casesjnyolved  problems  of  more  or 
less_^ob^^rity.  _  The  more  recent  grants,  even  "when 
\teld  in-  good  faith,  might  be  subject  to.  very  proper 
jipestion.  Conflicting  grants  might  also  be  found  to 
exist,  and  might  need  careful  examijaatiQn_i)efare  jsettle- 
jnent.  The  nature  of  certain  pretensions  might  be  very 
doubtful^  and  the  highest  legal  authority  might  have  to 
study  them  with  great  care.  .  Such,  for  example,  were 
the  cases  of  jhe  Mission  property,  where  the  question 
whether  the  church  had  properly  either  any  complete 
title  or  any  equitable  right  in  the  extensive  old  Mission 
.^^estates  was  one  that  could  not  be  settled  at  a  glance.* 

1  An  impression  remained  in  fact  long  prevalent  that  the  church 
was  at  least  in  equity  the  owner  of  the  Mission  estates,  and  certain 
31 


482  CALIFORNIA. 

And  such  a  problem  as  whether  San  Francisco  was  or 
was  not  a  pueblo,  and  so  entitled  to  its  four  square 
leagues  of  land,  d^emanded  the  most  elaborate  and  schol- 
arly study ;  and  the  highest  authorities  long  differed 
concerning  it.  For  the  examination  of  such  matters 
as  these  a  competent  tribunal  was  indeed  needed,  and 
should  have  been  provided  without  delay. 

_The  third  class  of  claims  were  the  simply  fraudulent 
ones,  and  these  proved  in  the  end  unfortunately-too-nu- 
merous.  The_worst  possible  way  of  dealing  with  theni 
was,  of  course,  to  delay  examining  them.  Any  time 
wasted  in  wrangling  over  predatory  objections  offered 
to  the  undoubtedly  genuine  and  traditionally  recognized 
^rights  of  the  older  land-owners  was  so  much  time  and 
inducement  given  to  the  rascals  to  invent  either  false 
new  claims  or  false  evidence  for  these  claims.  Novel  and_ 
suspicious^ainWj_such  as  Jha^  of  Limantour_ta.  a. -great, 
part  of  the  city  of  San  Francisco,  a  claim  not  heard  of 
before  1851,  should  have-Jjeen,  as  soon  as^  presented, 
among^ the  first  subjects  of  rigid  judicial  investi^ion. 
And  the  appointed  tribunals  should  therefore  have  been 
free  to  devote  time  to  these,  instead  of  being  long  de- 
tained over  an  examination  of  every  possible  quasi-legal 
objection  that  could  be  offered  to  the  well-known  and 
well-established  claims  of  the  older  land-owners. 

These  principles  were  perfectly  obvious,  and  there 
can  be  no  doubt  of  at  least  one  often  mentioned  device 
by  which  the  true  ends  of  justice  could  have  been  fur- 
thered. The  Calif ornian  archives  were,  save  for  a  few 
inevitable  losses,  in  our  possession.  Mr.  William  Carey 
Jones,  as  United  States  commissioner,  in  1849,  for  the 

writers  have  been  at  great  pains  to  keep  this  erroneous  impression  b& 
fore  the  public  mind. 


LAND-TITLES  AND  POLITICS.  483 

examination  of  the  land  question  in  California,  spent 
much  time  in  preparing  his  .lengthy  and  able  report 
upon  the  land  claims,  as  shown  by  these  archives.  It 
would,  therefore,  have  been  the  natural  and  just  course 
on  the  part  of  Congress  to  confirm,  by  a  simple  act,  aU 
those  recorded  and  undisputed  land  grants  whose  own- 
ers had  been  in  actual  and  quiet  possession  for  a  term 
of  from  five  to  ten  years  before  the  conquest.  This  act 
could  have  been  executed  by  commissioners,  as  the  first 
step  towards  the  judicial  settlement  of  the  land  problem 
in  California.  Then  either  the  same  commissioners,  or 
other  tribunals,  could  have  been  appointed  to  consider 
the  settlement  of  the  doubtful  matters,  as  a  second  step 
towards  the  final  goal. 

So  obvious  was  this  method  that,  from  1850  to  the 
present  day,  there  have  not  been  wanting  those  who 
have  praised  it  as  the  sole  proper  device.  Such  at  first 
advised  it;  and  later,  they,  with  many  others,  lamented 
that  it  had  not  been  chosen.  But  we  were  too  selfish  to 
be  wise.  What  we  did  was  far  less  just,  and  also  far 
less  clever. 

•»  The  Land^Act  of  1851  was  the  work  of  Senator 
Gwin,  the  same  who  had  led  captive  the  poor  native 
CaSornians  in  the  constitutional  convention.  Gwin 
protested,  against  Senator  Benton  and  others  who,  on 
the  floor  of  the  senate  at  Washington,  very  justly  and 
wisely  opposed  his  scheme,  that  he  desired  nothing  so^ 
much  as  to  be  fair  to  the  CaHfornians.  In  fact,  his  bill, 
as  presented  at  the  session  of  1851,  was  not  in  appear- 
ance so  black  as  at  heart  it  was.  Commissioners  were 
to  be  appointed  to  examine  al][  California  land  claims. 
These  claims  were,  within  a  stated  period,  to  be  pre- 
sented before  _the  board  by  the  claimants,  the  grantee 


484  CALIFORNIA. 

appearing  for  those  who  held  under  his  grant,  and  a 
Californian  pueblo  appearing  for  its  citizens.  Claims 
not  presented  within  the  stated  period  were  to  be  no 
longer  regarded,  but  the  lands  in  question  were  then  to 
be  considered  as  having  been  reincorporated  in  the  public 
domain.  All  claimants  must  appear  before  the  board 
as  suitors  against  the  United  States,  which,  as  repre- 
sented  by  its  attorneys,  was  formally  to  resist  their 
claims  in  every  case.  The  board's  decision  was,  how- 
ever, not  to  be  regarded  as  final.  On  behalf  of  either 
^  party  appeal  would  lie,  from  this  decision,  to  the  United 
States  district  court,  and  thence  to  the  United  States 
supreme  court  itself.  And  if  the  United  States  attor- 
neys should  see  fit,  they  might  thus  force  the  claimant, 
even  in  the  clearest  possible  case,  to  fight  for  his  own 
long  universally  recognized  property  in  three  successive 
courts,  at  an  enormous  expense.  For,  as  is  seen,  all 
claims  were  to  be  treated  alike.  All,  whether  actually 
disputed  by  private  individuals  or  not,  were  to  be  re- 
garded as  called  in  question  by  the  United  States,  which, 
of  course,  would  sue  to  have  them  restored  to  the  pub- 
lic domain.      In  this  shape,  substantially,  the  act  was 


The  true  spirit  of  the  act  was  made  plain  at  the  next 
session  of  Congress,  when  Gwin  introduced  his  infamous 
supplementary  land  bill,  which  failed  to  pass.  The  act 
of  1851  had  been  a  device  for  delaying  the  just  rec- 
ognition of  all  land  claims  in  California,  and  for  putting 
all  honest  Californian  land-owners  in  the  position  of 
presumably  fraudulent  claimants,  whose  right  to  their 
own  was  to  be  considered  as  doubtful  until  proved  by 
positive  evidence,  in  possibly  as  many  as  three  courts. 
The  supplementary  bill,  if  it  had  passed,  was. meaftt,  to 


LAND-TITLES  AND  POLITICS.  485 

encourage  whoever  had  no  rights  in  the  land  to  steal 
Hti'om  those  whd"to-d  rights,  so  long  as  these  rights  were 
"^hus  unjustly  held  in  abeyance  under  the  act  of  1851. 
If,  said  the  bill,  any  one" "in  good  faith"  had  settled 
on  land,  "  believing  it  to  be  public  land,"  and  if,  later, 
this  land  was  found  to  be  within  the  limits  of  a  con- 
firmed  Mexican  grant,  then  the  well-meaning  squatter 
in  question  should  be  permitted  —  to  retain  his  stolen 
^Iract  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres,  while  the  Califor- 
^ian  land-owner  was  to  be  "  compensated  "  by  receiving 
a  "  floating  title  "   to   an  equivalent  number  of  acres, 
"''"-Trhich  he  might  choose  where  he  could,  from  the  public 
lands  in  the  State.     When  we  remember  that  the  prin- 
cipal American    objection  to    the  Mexican  grants  was 
that  they  took  up  so  much  of  the  *' finest  agricultural 
lands  of  the  State,"  the  significance  of  the  supplemen- 
tary biU  becomes  plain.     One  ought  to  add  that  Sena- 
~  tor  Gwin  never  grew  ashamed  of  this  abortive  attempt 
at  predatory  legislation,  and  mentions  it  with  a  certain 
pride  in  that  manuscript  statement  of  his  career  which 
he  prepared  for  the  use  of  Mr.  Bancroft's  library.    Some 
of  the  California  newspapers  very  vigorously  condemned 
the  unhappy  bill  at  the  time  when    it   was  first  pre- 
sented,^ and  it  was  undoubtedly  too  advanced  for  the  . 
current  public  opinion  of  the  State,  however  much  it 
might  fall  short  of  the  original  purposes  of  the  squat- 
ters. 

Into  the  complex  and  difficult  history  of  the  greater 
California  land  cases  there  is  here  no  space  to  enter. 
The  Land  Act  of  1851  made  everything  for  a  while 
i5oiibtfiJil.     Case  after  case  was  appealed  to  the  district 

I  See  San  Francisco  Herald  of  May  29,  1852,  for  a  letter  on  thig 
topic,  —  a  letter  that  the  editor  full}'  approves. 


^ 


486  CALIFORNIA. 

and  then  to  the  supreme  courts;  numerous  and  very 
able  lawyers  were  employed  for  many  years,  and  the 
estates  of  the  Californians  were,  for  these  years,  in 
jeopardy.  The  effects  may  readily  be  imagined.  The 
poor  CaHfornians,  no  business  men  to  begin  with,  were 
IKtis  forced  into  the  most  wearisome  sort  of  business. 
They  must,  as  it  were,  gamble  for  their  own  property, 
under  the  rules  of  an  alien  game,  wliich  they  found 
largely  unintelligible.  Their  property  was,  meanwhile, 
rendered  hard  to  sell,  and  taxation  fell  upon  them  more 
heavily  than  upon  the  wandering  and  irresponsible 
mining  population.  Their  lawyers  they  could  pay  only 
with  the  land  itself.  With  squatters  they  had  continu- 
ally to  wrangle.  The  government  had  put  them  before 
the  country  in  the  position  of  presumably  fraudulent 
claimants ;  and  they  must  therefore  meet  with  an  only 
too  general  suspicion  that  the  best  of  them  were  actually 
such.  Their  position  was  demoralizing  and  dishearten- 
^ing.  The  southern  part  of  the  State,  where  the  most 
and  the  wealthiest  of  them  lived,  was,  from  Monterey 
downward,  sadly  neglected  by  early  state  legislation. 
For  years  it  reaped  little  advantage  from  the  gold  dis- 
covery, and  much  injury  from  the  presence  of  the  gold- 
seekers  in  the  north.  Its  natural,  and,  from  its  own 
point  of  view,  justifiable  efforts  to  escape  from  its  un- 
happy position  by  means  of  a  division  of  the  State,  were 
easily  defeated  by  the  healthy  and  yet  merciless  deter- 
mination of  the  bulk  of  the  Americans  of  the  north  to 
permit  no  chance  for  slavery  to  gain  a  foothold  on  the 
coast.  This  determination  forbade  any  successful  effort 
to  free  the  southern  half  of  the  State  from  the  control 
of  the  existing  constitution.^  Not  long  before  the  out- 
1  The  division  of  the  State  was  a  subject  of  agitation  in  the  soutl^ 


LAND-TITLES  AND  POLITICS.  487 

break  of  the  civil  war,  further  efforts  were  making 
towards  the  same  end,  but  this  time  with  a  more  pro- 
nounced political  purpose.  Yet,  both  first  and  last,  all 
these  efforts  were  doomed  to  fail,  and  for  the  poor  na 
tives,  whom  the  general  government  thus  so  shamefully- 
harassed,  there  was  no  deliverance  from  the  neglect  and 
taxation  of  the  financially  ill-managed  state  government. 
It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that,  under  these  circum- 
stances, the  Californians  —  who  had  never  been  exactly 
moral  heroes  —  rapidly  tended  towards  the  utter  degra- 
dation in  which  we  had  always  meanly  declared  them  to 
have  been  placed  by  nature. 

But  as  for  us,  who  thus  sought  to  despoil  by  legal  means 
those  whom  we  were  too  orderly  to  rob  on  any  grand 
scale  by  violence,  we  could  not  altogether  escape  from 
the  demoralization  that  we  tried  to  inflict.  "  Woe  unto 
thee,  O  land,"  it  might  very  truly  be  said,  "when  thy 
land-holders  are  a  dangerous  class."  But  just  such  a 
class  were  for  years,  in  some  counties,  our  own  lesser 

among  the  native  Californians  and  others,  during  1851,  and  often 
later.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  native  Californians  concerned 
in  the  matter  desired  in  good  faith  to  be  relieved  from  the  unequal 
and  serious  burdens  of  the  existing  state  government,  and  little  doubt, 
also,  that  Southern  politicians  expected  advantages  to  the  cause  of 
slavery  from  such  a  division,  and  therefore  labored  for  it.  See  in  the 
Alta  (steamer  edition),  September  15,  1851,  the  call  from  citizens  of 
San  Diego  ior  a  convention  to  consider  the  division  of  the  State  ;  and 
October  1,  1851,  a  further  call  from  citizens  of  Los  Angeles  County, 
together  with  the  report  of  a  state  division  meeting  at  Los  Angeles, 
and  an  Alta  editorial,  expressing  very  calmly  the  first  natural  north- 
ern sentiment  on  the  matter.  See,  further,  Alta  (steamer  edition)  for 
October  15,  containing  further  editorial  and  news,  both  bearing  on  the 
topic  ;  and  November  1,  containing  a  full  report  of  the  convention  at 
Santa  Barbara  in  favor  of  division.  The  movement,  as  here  repre- 
sented, proved  to  be  seriously  disunited,  and  hence  was  ineffective. 
The  Alta,  while  never  growing  violent  in  condemnation*  still,  ol 
•ourse,  disapproved. 


488  CALIFORNIA. 

land-holders  of  American  stock,  and  all  because  the 
claims  that  they  had  usurped  were  of  uncertain  legal 
Yalidity,  their  undertakings  consequently  of  doubtful 
profit,  their  business,  as  land-holders,  resisting  the  Mex- 
ican grants,  a  sort  of  gambling,  while  their  views  of  law, 
of  duty,  and  of  life,  were  darkened  by  a  dim  conscious- 
ness of  their  own  injustice,  and  by  a  strong  consciousness 
of  their  own  insecurity.'  Whilst  our  state  courts,  with 
a  noble  severity,  thanks  to  the  general  learning  and  good 
character  of  our  lawyers,  usually  undertook  rigidly  to 
guard  the  vested  rights  of  the  Californian  land-owners, 
during  the  long  years  that  must  elapse  before  the  gen- 
eral government  could  be  ready  to  confirm  the  doubtful 
grants,  and  while  these  courts  were  nearly  always  ready 
to  eject  naked  trespassers,  to  give  the  unconfirmed  but 
prima  facie  valid  Mexican  claim  the  benefit  of  the 
doubt,  and  to  interpret  liberally  the  terms  of  the  often 
rudely  expressed  grants,  still  it  could  not  always  be 
profitable  or  even  possible  for  a  Californian  land-owner, 
or  for  his  legal  successors,  to  resist  all  squatters.  Some- 
times, as  in  the  notorious  and  infamous  case  of  the  firsi 
foundation  of  the  now  so  fine  and  progressive  city  ol 
Oakland,  a  great  tract  of  land  would  be  lost  to  its  own- 
ers  by  the  deeds  of  some  crowd  of  deliberate  and  un- 
principled trespassers,^  who  would  not  even  undertake 
to  justify  themselves  by  any  such  theory  of  predatory 
paorality  as  had  been  preached  in  the  gospel  of  the  Sac- 
ramento squatters.  Oftener,  when  smaller  parcels  had 
been  seized  here  or  there  by  squatters,  the  native  land- 
**claimant,  or  those  who  held  under  him,  found  it  possible 
and  convenient,  perhaps  after  years  of   bickering  and 

1  See  the  Centennial  History  of  Alameda  County,  chap,  xxix.,  foi 
tn  account  of  this  affair. 


LAND-TITLES  AND  POLITICS.  489 

litigation,  to  compromise  with  the  settler  for  a  small 
sum,  and  so' to  give  him  a  clear  title.     But,  during  all 

"these  intervening  years^liow^nTGappy  the  position  of  the 
squatter  himself  I  Tie  was  raising  his  crops  on  land 
that  he  professed  to  regard  as  a  portion  of  the  public 
domain,  to  be  acquired  by  him  through  preemption. 
Th  fact,  however,  he  was  using  a  large  part  of  his  income 
in  resisting  the  various  suits  brought  against  him  by  the 
claimant  under  the  old  grant.     His  pretended  "  quarter- 

'^ection"  of  public  land  was  hardly  a  salable  possession. 

"^  fellow-settler,  who  might  have  chosen  to  buy  a  title  to 
some  other  bit  of  land  from  the  original  claimant,  might 
be  his  next  neighbor,  and  might  even  some  day  buy  the 

jVIexican  title  to  his  own  tract.  Then  would  arise  bit- 
terness of  the  worst  sort,  not  now  between  American 
and  Californian,  but  between  the  American  fellow-set- 
tlers. Quarrels  that  would  soon  lead  to  threats,  and 
that  might  at  any  moment  lead  to  assaults,  and  so  to 
murder,  were  such  a  settler's  daily  bread  for  year  after 
year.  Until  the  supreme  court  at  Washington  should 
reach  the  case  and  decide  it,  nay,  until  the  official  sur- 
vey of  the  tract,  if  the  grant  was  confirmed  to  the  Cal- 
ifornian claimant,  should  be  completed  and  again  ap- 
proved (perchance  once  more,  after  further  appeals  on 
the  survey  to  the  supreme  court),  until  all  this  should  be 

"ended,  there  was  often  no  relief  to  the  quarrelsome  life 
of  the  jpersistent^squatter^  unless  mdeed 
shot-gun  should  some  day  cut  short  his  litigious  misery. 
And  this  was  the  life  of  thousands  of  petty  land-holders 
in  California,  during  the  years  when  land  litigation 
was  most  serious.  No  wonder  that,  under  such  circum- 
stances, two  great  evils  were  brought  upon  the  State, 
whose  effects  we  have  not  yet  had  quite  time  to  outgrow ; 


^..c\' 


490  CALIFORNIA. 

the  one  a  negative  evil,  the  long  and  lamentable  obstruc- 
tion of  the  material  prosperity  of  the  State,  by  the  dis-__ 
couragement  of  agricultural  enterprise ;  the  other  a  pos- 
itive  evil,  theinoral  mischief  done  to  the  country  by  )ih.Q 
encouragement  offered  to  thriftless  and  disorderly  squat- 
ters,  and  by  the  exclusion  of  a  great  number  of  the  best 
sort  of  farmers'  families,  who  left  the  State  earlyj^r 
never  came  to  it  at  all,  because  of  the  uncertainty  of 
land  titles,  and  because  of  their  fear  of  the  quarrels  and, 
"Hisorders  of  this  long  transition  period. 

If  one  adds  to  this  picture  that  of  those  numerous  de- 
graded Spanish  or  half-breed  outlaws,  the  creatures  of 
our  own  injustice,  the  sons,  sometimes,  or  the  former  ser- 
vants of  the  great  land-owners  whom  we  had  robbed,  if 
one  remembers  how  they  infested  country  roads,  harassed 
lonely  farms,  assaulted  the  mail-coaches,  and  plundered 
the  miners,  through  all  these  weary  years,  one  sees  at 
length  in  full  how  our  injustice  avenged  itself  upon  us, 
and  by  what  misery  we  paid  for  having  deliberately  set 
at  naught  fundamental  conditions  of  social  existence. 
From  the  first  moment  of  the  conquest  until  the  end  of 
these  early  days  we  showed  how  we  were  come  to  this 
land  to  get  ourselves  our  own  private  enjoyments  ;  but 
we  also  showed  how  we  thereby  did  get  for  ourselves 
nothing  so  much  as  public  calamities.  To  this  contin- 
ual petty  disorder  there  was  indeed  at  last  a  relief.  The 
greater  claims  being  decided,  the  more  serious  quarrels 
ended,  the  State  was  at  length  free,  in  the  years  since 
1870,  to  develop  far  more  rapidly  her  material  and 
moral  resources,  to  attract  a  large  new  population,  and 
to  cultivate  the  arts  of  civilization.  Yet  even  to-day  one 
hears  occasionally  of  the  old  sort  of  land-quarrel,  with 
its  brutal  and  sometimes  bloody  consequences.      And 


LAND-TITLES  AND  POLITICS.  491 

meanwhile,  if  one  complains  of  the  unfortunate  concen- 
tration of  the  land  in  a  compai:atively  few  hands,  of  the 
lack  of  small  proprietors  in  certain  parts  of  the  State, 
and  of  the  evils  attendant  upon  such  a  state  of  things, 
one  has  to  remember  that  these  evils  also  are  in  great 
part  a  result  of  the  policy  which,  instead  of  encouraging 
the  old  Californians  to  sell  their  grants  in  small  tracts 
to  new-comers,  forced  them  at  length  to  part  with  their 
iands  in  vast  tracts  to  their  lawyers,  or  to  scheming 
speculators,  so  that  these  profited  by  the  misfortunes  of 
the  Californians,  to  the  lasting  injury  of  the  whole  State. 
—  "  You  will  not  fail,"  Buchanan  had  said  in  the  secret 
dispatch  to  Larkin,  "  prudently  to  warn  the  government 
and  people  of  California,"  and  "  to  arouse  in  their 
bosoms  that  love  of  liberty  and  independence  so  natural 
to  the  American  continent."  "  If  the  people  should  de- 
"^ire  to  unite  their  destinies  with  ours,  they  would  be  re- 
■""TCeived  as  brethren,"  Buchanan  had  added,  thus  assur- 
ing the  Californians  of  "  the  cordial  sympathy  and 
friendship  of  the  president."  Such  were  our  sacred 
promises  to  these  people  in  1845,  promises  none  the  less 
Sacred  because  they  were  part  of  an  intrigue.  And  such 
is  the  wretched  tale  of  how  we  kept  faith  with  our 
victims. 

in.     EARLY   POLITICAL    CONFLICTS. 

We  must  now  glance,  in  conclusion,  at  the  causes  de- 
termining the  purely  partisan  political  life  in  California 
during  the  period  with  which  we  deal. 

The  somewhat  diminished  enthusiasm  of  the  Ameri- 
cans in  California  for  their  own  national  government, 
which  had,  from  the  outset,  neglected  them,  was  still 
equal  to  the  task  of  taking  sides,  with  some  bitterness. 


492  CALIFORNIA. 

in  the  great  national  political  questions.  The  skill  of 
Southern  politicians  present  in  California,  and  the  irre- 
sistible course  of  events  in  the  political  world  at  that 
moment,  at  once  gave  the  Democratic  party  the  upper 
hand  in  the  State,  and  favored,  on  the  whole,  the  South- 
ern wing  of  that  party.  Very  evil  seems,  from  one 
point  of  view,  this  partisan  influence  in  state  politics. 
For  the  early  political  life  of  this  region,  upon  whose 
destiny  the  great  national  questions  themselves  could 
for  the  moment  have  little  immediate  influence,  was 
thus  directed  by  party  men,  whose  actual  objects  must 
of  course  be,  under  such  circumstances,  little  save  office 
and  patronage.  In  largely  academic  discussions  of  na- 
tional questions  that,  vastly  significant  in  themselves, 
were  here,  for  some  years,  used  chiefly  as  pretenses, 
and  in  quarrels  and  bargains  concerning  the  distribution 
of  offices,  time  was,  therefore,  spent  that  ought  to  have 
been  devoted  to  the  inner  political  growth  of  the  new 
State.  The  "  great  heroes "  of  those  days  generally 
quarreled  over  purely  personal  ambitions,  and  grew 
great  because  they  were  skillful  in  managing  corrupt 
political  organizations.  But  all  this  evil  had  another 
side.  When  the  American  lets  the  corrupt  party  man- 
agers rule  him,  he  does  so  with  an  immoral  but  still 
often  clever  submissiveness,  because  party  wrangles  not 
only  are  in  themselves  amusing,  but  also  are  an  excel- 
lent preventive  of  any  elaborately  dangerous  and  revolu- 
tionary legislation.  Early  California  was  full  of  social 
problems.  It  is  characteristic  of  the  people  that,  in 
dealing  with  these  problems,  their  legislators  were  gen- 
erally forced  to  restrict  themselves  to  very  conservative 
enactments.  The  politicians  might,  indeed,  squander 
public  money,  or  sell  offices  for  votes ;  but,  in  gen  oral, 


IP  LAND-TITLES  AND   POLITICS.  493 

they  might  not  try,  nor  even  propose,  any  revolutionary 
social  schemes.  This  conservatism  used  as  its  instru- 
ment, very  frequently,  the  corrupt  party  organizations 
themselves. 

The  later  history  of  the  squatter  agitation  is  in  point 
as  illustrating  this  tendency.  The  Settlers'  party  failed 
from  the  outset  to  accomplish  anywhere  nearly  as  much 
as  it  desired  in  the  way  of  getting  various  state  laws 
passed  for  harassing  or  for  indirectly  despoiling,  by  any 
plausible  device,  the  Californian  land-owners,  during 
the  pendency  of  the  great  land  htigation.  For  this 
party  had  again  and  again  to  submit  itself  to  the  des- 
potism of  the  greater  party  organizations.  The  main 
object  of  the  Democratic  or  other  leaders  was  to  get 
a  senatorship,  or  to  control  patronage,  or  to  do  some 
like  thing.  To  this  end,  one  took  sides  in  national  pol- 
itics ;  one  abused,  for  instance,  all  supposed  abolition- 
ists ;  one  talked  of  Jeffersonian  principles ;  one  ap- 
peared as  the  champion  of  the  people  ;  or,  above  all, 
one  manipulated  party  conventions.  These  activities 
led  towards  one's  goal.  Not  so,  however,  could  one 
succeed  if  one  offended  everybody  else  to  please  the 
squatters.  Yet,  to  satisfy  the  Settlers'  party,  one  would 
have  had  to  do  this.  This  party,  indeed,  formed  an  in- 
fluential faction  in  state  politics  for  years,  and  toiled  to 
get  various  sorts  of  statutes  passed  for  harassing  the 
Californian  grant-holders.  The  schemes  proposed  were 
often  ingenious,  and  tried  to  avoid  obvious  constitutional 
objections.  Once,  in  1856,  these  squatters  did  succeed 
in  getting  passed  a  very  dangerous  statute,  which  was 
ultimately  declared  unconstitutional.  But  they  failed, 
in  the  end,  to  get  a  constitutionally  valid  and  legally 
effective  statute   into  the  state  law-books  to  carry  out 


494  CALIFORNIA. 


any  of  their  direct  or  indirect  designs.  Since  we  as  a 
body  hated  the  Calif ornian  land-claimants  so  bitterly, 
our  general  although  not  perfect  forbearance  in  the 
matter  of  our  legal  enactments  concerning  them  must  be 
attributed  partly  to  our  instinctive  good  sense,  and  partly 
to  the  strictness  of  that  aforementioned  corrupt  party 
discipline  itself,  which,  by  demanding  the  submission  of 
all  individual  interests  to  the  ends  of  the  party,  kept  in 
the  background  people  who,  like  the  squatters,  were  dis- 
posed to  assert  their  independence  and  to  disorganize 
the  political  parties  for  their  own  purposes. 

In  the  first  legislature,  which  was  held  at  San  Jos^, 
much  important  business  was  done  under  great  physical 
difficulties,  and  with  the  disadvantage  of  the  presence 
of  too  many  careless  and  disorderly  members  in  the 
body.  By  the  end  of  1850  the  political  parties  were 
in   a  fair  way  to  be   organized,  and  the  legislature   of 

1851  was  largely  spent  in  a  struggle  over  the  election 
of  the  United  States  senator  to  replace  Colonel  Fre- 
mont, whose  "  short  term  "  was  soon  to  expire.  The 
election,  after  many  ballotings,  had  to  be  postponed  for 
a  year ;  and,  during  1851,  the  Democratic  party  first 
clearly  showed  its  supremacy  in  the  State,  and  elected 
Mr.  John  Bigler  to  the  state  governorship.  This  offi- 
cial served  two  terms,  —  a  popular  and  unprincipled 
politician,  whose  influence  was  in  no  wise  for  good.^    In 

1852  the  United  States  senator  was  elected,  Colonel 
John  B.  Weller  getting  the  position.  But  at  this  point 
began  in  earnest  the  struggle  between^  the  two  heroes  of 

1  It  was  during  Bigler's  administration  that  the  first  agitation 
against  the  Chinese  in  California  took  place,  although  the  question  at 
that  time  had  a  very  different  appearance  from  the  one  which  it  ha» 
lince  assumed. 


1 


LAND-TITLES  AND  POLITICS.  496 

early  California  politics,  —  Broderick,  who  fully  in- 
tended to  get  the  rank  of  senator  when  the  next  vacancy 
should  occur,  and  Gwin,  who  had  been  one  of  the  first 
pair  of  senators  elected,  and  who  now  confidently 
looked  forward  to  reelection  in  1855.  The  remarkably 
dramatic  struggle  of  several  subsequent  years,  between 
the  Southerner  and  the  Irishman,^  we  are  not  concerned 
to  follow  in  this  book,  the  more  so  as  its  most  im- 
portant scenes  lie  outside  of  our  chosen  period.  The 
reader  may  be  referred,  if  he  will,  to  the  able,  interest- 
ing, and  not  unamusing  book  of  Mr.  James  O'Meara,* 
where  the  whole  story  is  told  with  a  worshipful  admira- 
tion of  the  heroic  deeds  that  took  place  during  the  war- 
fare. A  characteristic  event  in  the  struggle  was  the 
effort  of  Broderick  to  get  the  legislature,  in  1854,  to 
elect  liim  to  the  senatorship  one  year  in  advance  of  the 
regular  time.  A  bill  to  authorize  such  an  election  was 
introduced  in  Broderick's  interest,  the  idea  being  that, 
as  Broderick  had  a  majority  in  the  joint  vote  of  the 
two  houses  of  this  legislature,  no  opportunity  ought  to 
be  given  to  his  fellow  Democrats  to  destroy  this  major- 
ity before  the  next  legislature  should  meet.  The  bill 
was  defeated  only  after  a  long  struggle,  in  which  brib- 
ery, liquor,  threatened  violence,  and  even  actually 
attempted  violence  were  not  lacking  on  both  sides. 
Before  the  next  legislature  met,  Broderick  was  in  a 
very  small  minority  in  his  own  party  ;  but  the  crisis 
of  the  Kansas  controversies  enabled  him  erelong  to  come 
to  the  front  in  politics  as  an  opponent  of  the  ultra- 

1  David  Broderick,  although  bom  in  America,  was  the  son  of  an 
Irish  stone-cutter,  and  grew  up  amid  Irish  surroundings.  He  learned 
the  political  art  in  New  York,  under  Tammany  iuflueaces. 

*  Broderick  and  (rwtn,  San  Francisco,  1881. 


496  CALIFORNIA. 

Southern  wing  of  his  party,  and  as  a  champion  of  free- 
dom. He  alone  could  cope  with  the  influence  of  Gwin, 
whom  he  outdid  in  the  management  of  primary  elec- 
tions and  of  conventions,  as  Gwin,  in  turn,  had  the  ad- 
vantage of  him  in  political  experience,  in  social  position, 
in  oratorical  skill,  and,  for  some  years,  in  the  actual 
possession  of  power.  But  Broderick  was  the  better 
loved  by  his  friends.  He  was  generous  and  warm- 
hearted, he  hated  the  Southern  aristocracy,  he  repre- 
sented the  pride  of  the  born  freeman  and  of  the  labor- 
er's son;  and  although  political  and  other  principles 
never  meant  much  to  him,  in  comparison  with  personal 
success,  and  although  he,  like  most  of  his  opponents, 
looked  upon  the  State  as  an  oyster,  to  be  opened  as  one 
might,  he  nevertheless  managed,  in  the  sequel,  to  seem 
a  sort  of  leader  in  the  struggle  against  the  extension  of 
slavery,  and  so  as  a  representative  of  the  good  cause  on 
the  Pacific  coast.  With  his  later  career,  with  his  elec- 
tion to  the  Senate  in  1857,  with  his  disgraceful  bargains 
over  the  second  senatorship  on  that  occasion,  with  his 
brief  career  at  Washington,  and  with  the  tragedy  that 
first  fully  made  him  a  popular  hero  in  1859,  when  he 
was  killed  by  Judge  Terry  in  a  duel,  the  limits  of  our 
task  forbid  us  to  deal.  Broderick's  name  has  ever 
since  been,  for  many,  a  name  to  conjure  with,  although 
one  asks  in  vain  what  legislative  work  of  importance  he 
can  be  said  to  have  accomplished.  Legislative  work, 
however,  is  the  last  thing  that  one  may  demand  of  a 
man  of  Broderick's  position  and  popular  reputation. 

An  episode  in  this  struggle  and  in  the  political  his- 
tory of  the  State  was  the  brief  and  quite  fruitless  suo 
cess  of  the  Know-Nothing  party  in  1855.  Many  had 
looked  to  this  party  for  the  salvation  of  the  State  from 


LAND-TITLES  AND  POLITICS.  497 

corrupt  influences.  Its  actual  success,  however,  resulted 
from  its  alliance  at  this  election  with  the  ultra-Southern 
Democrats,  whose  only  desire,  at  the  moment,  was  to 
defeat  Broderick.  A  victory  so  won  meant  nothing, 
and  led  to  nothing,  save  the  choice  of  an  incompetent 
governor,  —  Neely  Johnson,  —  and  a  new  disappoint- 
ment for  many  of  the  better  citizens  of  California.  The 
Know-Nothing  movement  hereupon  quickly  came  to  an 
end,  and  the  Democrats  assumed  once  more  their  natu- 
ral position  at  the  head  of  affairs,  which  they  kept  until 
the  outbreak  of  the  war.  On  the  whole,  the  early  years 
of  California  state  politics  furnish  a  decidedly  unsatis- 
factory picture,  so  long  as  one  looks  at  the  positive  re- 
sults. Some  very  good  legislation  was,  indeed,  accom- 
plished for  San  Francisco  interests,  but  it  was  marred 
by  some  decidedly  bad  work  relating  to  the  same  city. 
Some  serious  mistakes,  such  as  the  first  Foreign  Miners' 
tax,  were  promptly  corrected,  and  some  problems  of  the 
new  social  order  were  well  dealt  with ;  but  as  to  the 
whole,  rather  on  the  negative  side,  rather  in  the  dan- 
gers avoided  than  in  the  positive  legislative  work  done, 
must  the  value  of  the  early  political  activity  be  placed. 
The  conflicting  interests  present  in  the  young  State 
urged  often  to  very  hasty  legislative  action,  and,  despite 
political  corruption,  —  yes,  often  because  of  such  cor^ 
ruption,  —  such  hasty  and  dangerous  action  was  again 
and  again  avoided. 

The  lesson  of  the  legislative  work  of  these  early  yearS 
is  one  very  common  in  American  history.  As  we  find 
everywhere  in  our  land,  the  danger  of  popular  sover- 
eignty, at  least  in  times  of  peace,  is  not  so  much  its 
hastiness  as  its  slothfulness,  its  corrupt  love  of  ease,  its 
delight  in  old  and  now  meaningless  phrases,  and  in  the 
32 


498  CALIFORNIA. 

men  who  use  these  phrases.  Such  men  do  not  destroy 
the  existing  social  order,  but  while  preserving  it  from 
sudden  injury,  they  fatten  themselves  upon  the  slow 
decay  that  goes  on  in  its  less  vigorous  parts.  The  people 
do  not  permit  these  parasites  to  do  much  positive  mis- 
chief;  and  the  party  organizations  are,  on  the  whole, 
conservative  forces.  But  what  the  people  permit  the 
party  managers  to  do  is  to  stand  in  the  way  of  true  and 
healthy  progress,  and  to  cause  public  needs  to  grow 
dangerously  great,  before  the  selfish  political  squabbles 
can  be  subordinated  to  the  satisfaction  of  these  needs. 
In  a  very  new  part  of  the  country,  however,  where  the 
social  order  is  a  tender  plant,  and  is  capable  of  a  rapid 
and  healtny  growth  of  its  own,  while  it  is  very  easily 
endangered  by  any  injurious  external  assaults,  this  ten- 
dency of  ours  to  tolerate  political  corruption  rather  than 
political  officiousness  is  certainly  far  more  prudent  than 
the  reverse  tendency  would  be.  While  we  condemn 
the  immorality  of  such  toleration  of  corrupt  men,  let  us 
then  not  forget  the  relatively  good  effects  of  this  very 
tolerance  in  many  new  lands,  and  in  California  in  par- 
ticular. A  people  with  less  political  skill  than  our  own 
would  have  suffered  far  more  from  earnest  but  visionary 
schemers  than  we  in  California  suffered  from  the  whole 
crew  of  selfish  politicians.  While  we  submitted  to  these 
latter  we  still  actually  used  their  own  partisan  phrases 
and  their  personal  ambitions  as  the  instruments  for 
impeding  the  course  of  dangerous  legislation,  and  so  we 
saved  ourselves,  sometimes,  not  indeed  from  the  just 
penalties  of  our  political  sins,  but  from  the  consequences 
of  sins  that  we  were  happily  able  to  avoid  committing. 

One  word  here  in  anticipation  of  later  events.    During 
the  civil  war,  California,  which  really  could  not  have 


LAND-TITLES  AND  POLITICS.  499 

been  led  out  of  the  Union  by  the  most  skillful  of  party 
managers,  still,  having  seemed  at  the  outset  a  trifle  in 
danger,  gained  by  the  consent  of  the  government  an 
exemption  from  the  direct  burden  of  the  war,  for  which 
it  probably  well  repaid  by  the  assistance  that  its  treasure 
gave  to  the  government  during  the  long  financial  diffi- 
ficulties.  Many  of  its  citizens  did  indeed  take  per- 
sonal part  on  one  side  or  the  other.  But  they  left  the 
State  to  do  so,  and  at  home  all  remained  tranquil.  The 
prevailing  sentiment  of  the  State  was  unmistakably 
loyal.  The  close  of  the  war  found  the  new  land  rapidly 
and  steadily  progressing.  The  coming  of  the  great 
railroad  introduced,  a  few  years  later,  a  new  life,  with 
fresh  responsibilities  and  trials,  so  that  thenceforth  the 
golden  California  of  the  early  days  fades  farther  and 
farther  into  the  background,  and  a  great  agricultural 
and  horticultural  country  to-day  works,  in  its  way,  upon 
the  problems  of  its  social  life,  while  it  is  still  under  the 
influence  of  the  traditions  of  that  golden  past. 

IV.    CONCLUSION. 

The  race  that  has  since  grown  up  in  California,  as 
the  outcome  of  these  early  struggles,  is  characterized 
by  very  marked  qualities  of  strength  and  weakness, 
some  of  which,  perchance,  even  a  native  Californian 
like  the  author,  who  neither  can  nor  would  outgrow  his 
healthy  local  traits,  may  still  be  able  to  note  and  con- 
fess. A  general  sense  of  social  irresponsibility  is,  even 
to-day,  the  average  Californian's  easiest  failing.  Like 
his  father,  he  is  probably  a  born  wanderer,  who  will  feel 
as  restless  in  his  farm  life,  or  in  his  own  town,  as  his 
father  felt  in  his.  He  will  have  little  or  no  sense  of 
social  or  of  material  barriers,  he  will  perchance  hunt  for 


600  CALIFORNIA. 

himself  a  new  home  somewhere  else  in  the  world,  or  in 
the  old  home  wiU  long  for  some  speculative  business  that 
promises  easy  wealth,  or  again,  on  the  other  hand,  he 
will  undertake  some  great  material  labor  that  attracts 
him  by  its  imposing  difficulty.  His  training  at  home 
gives  him  a  curious  union  of  provincial  prejudice  with 
a  varied,  if  not  very  exact,  knowledge  of  the  sorts  of 
things  that  there  are  in  the  world.  For  his  surround- 
ings from  infancy  have  been  in  one  sense  of  a  cosmopol- 
itan character;  while  much  of  his  training  has  been 
rigidly  or  even  narrowly  American.  He  is  apt  to  lack 
a  little,  moreover,  complete  devotion  to  the  life  within 
the  household,  because,  as  people  so  often  have  pointed 
out,  the  fireside,  an  essential  institution  of  our  English 
race,  is  of  such  small  significance  in  the  climate  of  Cali- 
fornia. In  short,  the  Californian  has  too  often  come  to 
love  mere  fullness  of  life,  and  to  lack  reverence  for  the 
relations  of  life. 

And  yet,  as  we  have  seen,  the  whole  lesson  of  his 
early  history,  rightly  read,  is  a  lesson  in  reverence  for 
the  relations  of  life.  It  was  by  despising,  or  at  least  by 
forgetting  them,  that  the  early  community  entered  into 
the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death  ;  and  there  was  salvar 
tion  for  the  community,  in  those  days,  only  by  virtue  of 
its  final  and  hard-learned  submission  to  what  it  had  de- 
spised and  forgotten.  This  lesson,  I  confess,  has  come 
home  to  me  personally,  as  I  have  studied  this  early  his- 
tory, with  a  quite  unexpected  force.  I  had  always 
thought  of  the  old  days  as  times  of  fine  and  rough  labors, 
amusements  and  crimes,  but  not  as  a  very  rational  his- 
torical process.  I  have  learned,  as  I  have  toiled  foi 
a  while  over  the  sources,  to  see  in  these  days  a  process 
of  divinely  moral  significance.     And,  as  a  Californian, 


LAND-TITLES  AND  POLITICS.  601 

I  am  glad  to  be  able  to  suggest  what  I  have  found,  plain 
and  simple  as  it  is,  to  any  fellow-Californian  who  may 
perchance  note  in  himself  the  faults  of  which  I  make 
confession.  Here  in  the  early  history  are  these  faults, 
writ  large,  with  their  penalties,  and  the  only  possible 
salvation  from  them. 

After  all,  however,  our  lesson  is  an  old  and  simple 
one.  It  is  the  State,  the  Social  Order,  that  is  divine. 
We  are  all  but  dust,  save  as  this  social  order  gives  us 
life.  When  we  think  it  our  instrument,  our  plaything, 
and  make  our  private  fortunes  the  one  object,  then  this 
social  order  rapidly  becomes  vile  to  us  ;  we  call  it  sordid, 
degraded,  corrupt,  unspiritual,  and  ask  how  we  may 
escape  from  it  forever.  But  if  we  turn  again  and  serve 
the  social  order,  and  not  merely  ourselves,  we  soon  find 
that  what  we  are  serving  is  simply  our  own  highest 
spiritual  destiny  in  bodily  form.  It  is  never  truly  sor- 
did or  corrupt  or  unspiritual ;  it  is  only  we  that  are  so 
when  we  neglect  our  duty. 


INDEX. 


Abalos,  Senorita,  387,  388. 

AdaiUB  &  Co.,  failure  of,  431. 

Aiken,  Dr.,  witness  for  the 
at  the  Downieville  lynching  of  1851, 
372. 

Alcaldes  in  California  after  conquest, 
200-206. 

"  Alta  California,"  newspaper,  388. 

Alvarado,  Governor,  25,  sqq. ;  revolu- 
tion by,  25;  conflicts  and  success 
of,  26-28 ;  quarrel  of,  with  foreign- 
ers, 28  ;  validity  of  his  grant  to  Sut- 
ter, 470,  471. 

American  character,  general  remarks 
on,  as  shown  in  California,  1,  2,  34, 
47,  63,  66,  76,  151-156,  198, 212,  218, 
222,  225-230,  234,  238,  239,  255,  259, 
271,  273-278,  279,  280,  300,  304,  305, 
324,  327,  328,  335,  353,  356, 357-368, 
371-374,  398,  466,  468,  487-491,  492, 
498.  For  particulars  see  under 
Americans  in  California  ;  Calif or- 
nians,  native;  Popular  justice  ;  So- 
ciety, state  of;  Women  in  Califor- 
nia; San  Francisco. 

Americans  in  California  before  the 
conquest,  34-47. 

Americans  in  California  in  1846,  suj)- 
posed  danger  of  their  position,  87, 
91,  93-111. 

Americans  in  CaUfomia,  during  the  ib- 
terregnum,  198-270 ;  discontent  of, 
198-213;  land-hunger  of,  206-211; 
at  San  Francisco,  213-220 ;  as  gold- 
seekers,  220-234;  routes  by  which 
they  reached  California,  234-246; 
struggles  of,  for  a  constitution,  246- 
270;  constitutional  theories  of,  in 
1849,  248,  249 ;  pubUc  amusements 
of,  227, 392-398.  Further  references 
under  San  Francisco,  Society,  Pop- 
ular justice,  and  WoTuen. 

"Annals  of  San  Francisco,"  cited,  77, 
178, 179,  189,  213,  214,  219,  220, 223, 
267,  380,  386,  389,  390,  393,  3W-397, 


I  399,  401,  408,  409,  420 ;  criticised  in 
particular,  393-397. 

Arce,  Lieutenant,  59, 105. 
I  Argiiello,  commandante  at  San  Fran- 
cisco, 17  ;  chosen  governor,  19. 

Argiiello,  Concepcion,  17. 

Arkansas  miners,  dispossessed  for 
trespass  upon  Chinese  miners,  367, 
note. 

Arrillaga,  17. 

Auger,  "Voyage  en  Califomie," 
cited,  309,  365,  366. 

Ayala,  Lieutenant,  14. 

Baker,  Col.  E.  D.,  458. 

Baldridge,  Wm.,  statements  of,  on 
Bear  Flag  affair,  61,  62,  69,  72. 

Balls  in  the  mines,  351  j  352  and  note. 

Bancroft,  Mr.  George,  mstructions  of, 
to  Sloat,  128. 

Bancroft,  H.  H.,  cited,  8,  9,  sqq.  to 
page  30 ;  also  174,  et  passim. 

Bancroft,  H.  H.,  Larkin  papers  pos- 
sessed by,  38,  96 ;  their  value,  39,  et 
passim  ;  as  discoverer  of  LarMn  dis- 
patch, 133,  134,  142. 

Baptists  in  San  Francisco,  401. 

Bardt,  Dr.,  flogged  for  theft  in  1852  at 
Johnson's  Bar,  333,  334. 

Barrows'  "Oregon  "  cited,  119. 

Bartlett,  Lieutenant,  205. 

Bates,  Mrs.,  cited,  384. 

Bear  Flag  affair,  53, 58-83 ;  reflections 
on,  155,  156 ;  BidweU  on,  100-102 ; 
Californian  hostility  as  a  cause  for, 
93-111 ;  J.  H.  Hittell  on,  117  ;  Gen- 
eral Fremont  on,  120-123.  See  also 
Fremont,  Ide,  Califomians,  Sono- 
ma, Gillespie. 

Benicia,  founded  and  named,  213. 

Benton,  Thomas  H.,  Senator,  letters 
to,  by  Fremont,  in  May,  1846,  104, 
108, 132 ;  statements  by,  concerning 
Bear  Flag  affair,  88-92 ;  letter  for, 
in  Larkin's  hand,  104 ;  projects  of. 


5t)4 


INDEX., 


113;  position  of,  114;  opposes 
Gwin's  Land  BiU  in  1851,  483. 

Benton,  Rev.  Dr.,  his  "California 
Pilgrim  "  cited,  233. 

Bereyessa,  82. 

BidweU,  Mr.  John,  statement  on  Bear 
Flag  affair,  99-102,  121. 

Bidwell's  Bar,  opposition  to  foreign 
miners  at,  367. 

Bigler,  John,  Governor,  494. 

"Biglow  Papers,"  15C. 

Borth wick's  "  Three  Years  in  Califor- 
nia "  cited,  311,  317,  366. 

Botts,  C.  T.,  251,  269. 

Bour.dary  question  in  constitutional 
convention,  264-269.  See  also  IH- 
vision  of  California. 

Brace,  executed  by  Vigilance  Com- 
mittee, 464. 

Brannan,  Samuel,  197,  198,  219;  in 
the  affair  of  February  22,  1851,  410, 
411 ;  in  the  first  Vigilance  Commit- 
tee, 419,  420. 

Bridgeport,  lynching  at,  318. 

Broderick,  David,  263,  495,  496. 

Brooks,  J,  T.,  his  "Four  Months  in 
the  Gold  Mines"  cited,  289,  sqq. ; 
his  experiences  as  typical  of  mining 
life  in  1848,  289-301. 

Bryant,  Edwin,  his  "  What  I  saw  in 
California  "  cited,  43,  63,  77,  189. 

Buchanan,  118,  136,  137  ;  views  of,  on 
the  political  situation  in  California, 
263,  255.  See  also  under  Cabinet  of 
Polk. 

"  Bulletin,"  the  San  Francisco,  as  so- 
cial force  under  King's  manage- 
ment. See  under  King,  James,  of 
William. 

•'  Burke  Rocker,"  301. 

Burnett,  his  "Reminiscences  of  an 
Old  Pioneer"  cited,  251,  257;  as 
governor  of  California,  270. 

Burr,  juror  at  the  Downieville  lynch- 
ing of  July  5,  1861,  373. 

Cabinet  of  Polk,  its  plans  for  getting 
California,  50-64;  the  'fourth 
plan,"  W.,  57,  84,  87, 92,  93, 115-119, 
123,  138, 139 ;  the  real  cabinet  plan, 
125-147 ;  the  Larkin  dispatch,  136, 
137 ;  the  plan  further  criticised, 
152-156 ;  views  of,  on  the  situation 
in  CaUfomia  in  1848,  253,  255. 

CabriUo,  early  voyage  of,  9. 

Cahueuga,  capitulation  at,  193,  194. 

Calaveras,  disorder  in  the  mines  of 
that  region  in  1852,  343. 

California,  geographical  outlines  of, 
3-7 ;  climate,  7,  8 ;  discovery  of 
Lower  California,  9 ;  name,  9 ;  first 
explorations  of  the  coast  of  Upper 


u^alifomia,  9-11 ;  plans  for  settle- 
ment, 11,  12;  settlement  in  1769, 
13 ;  Spanish  period,  14-19 ;  Russian 
visits,  17,  18 ;  transition  to  Mexican 
rule,  19, 20 ;  Mexican  period,  20-30 ; 
character  of  the  native  population, 
30-34 ;  character  and  life  of  Ameri- 
cans in  California  before  1846,  34- 
46 ;  American  designs  on  California, 
48,  sqq. ;  supposed  English  designs 
on  California,  164-173 ;  beginnings, 
problems,  and  plans  of  the  Ameri- 
can conquest  in  Jime,  1846,  50-150 ; 
completion  of  conquest,  174,  sqq. ; 
revolt  and  re-conquest,  184-197  ;  in- 
terregnum, 198-270;  constitutional 
history  of  California  during  inter- 
regnum, 204-210, 246-270 ;  gold  dis- 
covery and  its  importance,  220-223 ; 
emigration  to  California  in  1849, 
224-246;  admission  of  State,  270; 
social  dangers  of,  during  the  gold 
period,  271,  sqq. ;  philosophy  of  the 
history  of  the  mining-times,  272- 
278;  evolution  of  disorder  in  Cali- 
fornia, 278-282 ;  mining-life  in  1848, 
284-301 ;  mining-life  in  1849-50, 301- 
307  ;  later  mining-life,  308-376 ;  im- 
portance of  San  Francisco  in  Cali- 
fornia history,  377  ;  outlines  of  San 
Francisco  history,  378-4G5 ;  Califor- 
nia as  affected  by  the  land  troubles, 
467^91 ;  early  state  poUtics,  491- 
499 ;  lessons  of  early  California  his- 
tory, 499-501. 

California,  the,  voyage  of,  235,  238. 

California,  Lower,  9 ;  Jesuits  expelled 
from,  11. 

California  battalion,  discontent  of,  af- 
ter conquest,  200. 

"  California  Star,"  the,  66,  198,  204- 


the,  cited,   63,    198, 


208,  219. 

"  Califomian, 
211. 

Califomians,  native,  characterization 
of,  30-34 ;  relations  of,  to  Ameri- 
cans before  1846,  36,  37  ;  their  posi- 
tion and  rights  in  1846,  51 ;  their 
views  of  the  Bear  Flag  outbreak, 
79-82 ;  supposed  hostility  of,  as  a 
cause  for  the  Bear  Flag  affair,  93- 
111 ;  Sloat's  instructions  from  the 
U.  S.  govenmient  regarding  them, 
125-128,  157-160 ;  Laikin's  mstruc- 
tions  regarding  them,  135-140,  153, 
491 ;  Larkin's  mtrigue  with  them, 
162-164 ;  English  relations  to,  164- 
172;  Stockton's  bearing  towards, 
177-179.  180-184,  190;  treatment  of, 
by  American  cfticials,  immediately 
before  the  revolt  of  1846-47,  184- 
189;  revolt  of,  189;  friendship  o^ 


INDEX. 


505 


to  Captain  Fremont,  186, 195 ;  feel- 
ings of,  during  the  interregnum,  198 ; 
dangerous  position  of,  207  ;  imliappy 
state  of,  in  1849,  256 ;  in  tiie  consti- 
tutional convention,  261, 267 ;  in  the 
mines,  290,  291,  364 ;  land  difflcul-  i 
ties  of,  in  later  years,  467,  sqq.,A^- 
491 ;  efforts  of,  for  a  division  of  the  ] 
State,  486,  487  ;  disastrous  condition  j 
of,  486,  490,  491.  1 

.  Camp  life,  effects  of,  on  personal  char-  i 
acter,  as  illustrated  in  Donner  party 
in  1846,  44;   further  remarks  on, 
245,  300. 

Cannan,  murdered  by  Califomian  wo- 
man at  Downieville  in  1851,  370; 
lynching  of  the  woman,  371-373. 

Dapital  punishment,  as  administered 
by  the  miners,  discussed,  336-338 ; 
bad  state  law  concerning,  337. 

Capron,  "History  of  California,"  cited, 
309,  317,  335. 

"Carlos,"  a  Sonoran,  hanged  at  Moque- 
lumue  Hill,  321-323. 

Carrillo,  Carlos,  27. 

Carrillo,  Tomas  M.,  294. 

Casey,  assassin  of  James  Bling,  of  Wil- 
liam, 438,  449 ;  seizure  and  execu- 
tion of,  by  the    second  Vigilance 
Committee  of  San  Francisco,  446,  | 
447,  448,  451,  452.  | 

Castillero,  Andres,  26.  I 

Castro,  Jos6, 24;  as  commandante  gen-  1 
eral,  29 ;     difficulty   with    Captain  | 
Fri^mont,  54,  55 ;  reported  hostility  j 
of,  59 ;    General  Fremont  on  this 
difficulty,   114,  115 ;    Senator  Ben-  ! 
ton  on  the  same,  88,  91 ;  controversy  [ 
with  Pio  Pico,  94,  96,  107 ;  Ameri- 
can opinion  of,  in  June,  1846,  107,  j 
108 ;  meeting  of,  with  Pio  Pico,175 ; 
in  command  at  Los  Angeles,  176; 
negotiations  with    Stockton,    180; 
flight  to  Mexico,  id. 

Catholics  in  San  Francisco,  401. 

"  Caxton  "  as  political  writer  in  1856, 
456. 

Cermenon,  10. 

Chagres  River,  239. 

Chico,  Governor,  24. 

Children  in  California,  399. 

Chinese,  367,  494. 

Civil  War,  California  in,  499. 

Clapp,  Mrs.  L.  A.  C.     Bee  "■  Shirley.'" 

Clergymen,  in  San  Francisco,  397, 
400,  401-403. 

Climate  of  California,  7,  8  ;  effect  of, 
on  health,  8. 

Coast  Range,  3,  6. 

Coleman,  Mr.  Wm.  T.,  in  February, 
1851,  411,  412 ;  in  the  flirst  Vigilance 
Committee,  419 ;  in  the  second  Vig- 


ilance Committee,  441,  sqg.  ;  his 
statements  cited,  441,  442,  445,  457, 
462 ;  his  interviews  with  Governor 
Johnson  on  the  Vigilance  Commit- 
tee plans,  441-446. 
Coloma,  locality  of  the  earliest   gold 

discovery,  220,  291,  319. 
Colton,     Rev.    Walter,    his     "Three 
Years  in  California"   cited,  62,  186, 
223 ;  his  character,  190. 
Congress,  U.  S.,  fails  to  provide,  gov- 
ernment for  California  in  1848  and 
1849,  252,  253,  256. 
Conquest,  American,  difficulty  of  de- 
scribing, 48,  49 ;  importance  of,  49 ; 
history  of  plans  for  and  early  scenes 
of,    52-150 ;   Sloat's  conquest,  157- 
176 ;  Stockton's  undertakings, '"177- 
184 ;  the  revolt  and  re-conquest,  184- 
195. 

Constitution  of  1849,  preparation  for, 
during  the  interregnum,  199-213, 
246-257  ;  formation  of,  in  conven- 
tion, 257-270  ;   adoption  of,  270. 

Constitutional  convention  (see  also 
Constitution  of  1849),  abortive  ef- 
forts for  a  convention,  257  ;  con- 
vention called,  257  ;  meeting  of 
convention,  259-270;  material  dif- 
ficulties of  the  members,  260 ;  tabu- 
lar classification  of  members,  260 ; 
political  positions  of  members,  261, 
262;  Southern  politicians  in,  263- 
266;  Wm.  Gwin's  work  in,  262-269; 
boundary  controversy  in,  264-269. 

Cooke,  Lieutenant,  192  ;  his  "  His- 
tory of  the  Conquest"  cited,  189, 
note. 

Cora,  assassin  of  General  Richardson, 
447  ;  his  arrest  by  Vigilance  Com- 
mittee, id. ;  his  marriage  and  execu- 
tion, 452. 

Coronel,  Signor,  statement  of,  cited, 
167,  176,  186,  188. 

Cortes,  9. 

Cowie,  81. 

Coyote,  the,  285,  339. 

"Coyote-holes,"  312. 

Cradle-mining,  287,  288,  301. 

Crespi,  14. 

Crosby,  C.  E.  O.,  statement  on  con- 
stitutional convention  cited,  263, 
note. 

Cutts'  "Conquest  of  New  Mexico 
and  California  "  cited,  88,  126. 

Dana,  R.  H.,  remarks  on  the  Cali- 
fornians,  32  ;  date  of  his  visit  to 
California,  36. 

Davis,  W.  H.,  his  MS.  "Glimpses  of 
the  Past"  cited,  38. 

Degroot,  Mr.  Henry,  cited,  296. 


506 


INDEX. 


Delano,  A.,  cited,  239,  245,  317. 

Diablo,  Mt.,  6. 

Division  of  California  proposed  at  va- 
rious times,  264-269,  486,  487  and 
note. 

Donner  party,  43-45,  197. 

Downieville,  disgraceful  lynching  at, 
in  1851,  368-374. 

Drake,  Sir  Francis,  voyage  of,  9. 

Easterbrook,  a  miner,  hanged  for  the 
murder  of  his  partner  in  1851,  at 
Shastaj  329-332. 

Echeandia,  Governor,  21,  22. 

Emigrants  of  1846,  43-46. 

English  schemes  in  California,  91,  92, 
154.     See  Seymour. 

Episcopalians  in  San  Francisco,  401. 

Fages,  Pedro,  14. 

Family  life  in  San  Francisco  in  early 
days,  403-407,  434,  435. 

Farragut,  Commodore,  459. 

Ferralo,  9. 

Figueroa,  Jo86,  Governor,  28,  24. 

Fire-engines  in  the  San  Francisco 
fires  of  1851,  387. 

Fires,  the  great.  See  under  5a»  Fran- 
cisco. 

Flogging  as  a  popular  miners'  penalty 
discussed,  335. 

Flores,  J.  M.,  189,  190. 

Ford,  Lieutenant,  73,  78,  79. 

Foreign  miners,  on  the  way  to  Cali- 
fornia, 236-239;  treatment  of,  in 
1849,  305,  358 ;  treatment  of,  after 
1849,  358-368;  illustrations  of  this 
treatment,  348,  352,  353-355,  368- 
374. 

Foreign  Miners'  Tax  Law  of  1850, 
358 ;  repeal  of,  359 ;  criticism  of, 
360 ;  troubles  caused  by,  at  Sonora, 
in  1850,  360-362. 

Foster's  Bar,  opposition  to  foreign 
miners  at,  367. 

Foster's  "Gold  Regions  of  Califor- 
nia "  cited,  223,  287. 

Fourgeaud,  Dr.,  219. 

Fowler,  81. 

Francesca.     See  Benicia. 

Franciscans,  appear  in  Lower  Califor- 
nia, 11  ;  settle  Upper  California,  12 ; 
missions  of,  12-16 ;  work  of,  criti- 
cised, 16.  See  also  Missions,  and 
Secularization. 

Fremont,  John  C,  his  visit  to  Califor- 
nia in  1844,  and  his  Report,  42,  43  ; 
the  usual  Interpretation  of  his  acts  in 
the  early  part  of  the  conquest  men- 
tioned, 53,  57 ;  his  appearance  in  Cal- 
ifornia in  1846, 54  ;  quarrel  with  Cas- 
tro, 64,  55  ;  retirement  towards  Or- 


egon, 65 ;  is  overtaken  by  Gillespie, 
66 ;  information  of  some  sort  deliv- 
ered to  him,  56  ;  he  returns  to  the 
Sacramento  Valley,  58 ;  rumors  of 
Castro's  hostility  circulated,  58,  59  ; 
consequent  seizure  of  Arce's  horses 
by  F.'s  order,  59;  beginning  of 
Bear  Flag  affair,  60  ;  F.  holds  at 
first  aloof,  61 ;  Ide's  interview  with 
F.,  68;  acts  of  certain  Bear  Flap 
men  xmder  F.'s  orders,  70  ;  F. 
reaches  Sonoma,  79 ;  San  Rafael 
campaign,  id. ;  killing  of  Haro  broth- 
ers, 80  ;  F.'s  acts  out  of  connection 
with  Sloafs  instructions,  85  ;  risks 
rim  through  F.'s  conduct,  86,  87  : 
F.'s  friends  and  their  past  explana- 
tions of  his  conduct,  87-93;  F.'s 
own  former  explanation,  93 ;  Cali- 
fornian  hostility  no  explanation 
for  F.'s  conduct,  93-111;  F.'s  rela- 
tions to  Gillespie  and  Larkin,  103- 
108 ;  F.'s  letter  to  Benton  as  evi- 
dence of  his  motives,  108,  109 ; 
probable  use  of  forged  proclama- 
tions by  F.  and  Gillespie,  109,  110 ; 
F.'s  own  present  explanation  of  his 
conduct,  111-123 ;  mysteries  deep- 
ened by  tliis  explanation,  123-129  ; 
only  one  dispatch  from  the  govern- 
ment was  known  to  F.,  and  this  the 
Larkin  dispatch,  129-133  ;  summary 
of  F.'s  position,  134,  135;  actual 
contents  of  the  Larkin  dispatch, 
135-138 ;  refutation  of  F.'s  justifica- 
tion of  his  conduct,  138-141 ;  sup- 
plementary evidence,  141-147 ;  re- 
joinder of  F.  in  final  interview,  147, 
148;  reflections  hereon,  149,  150; 
further  characterization  of  F.'s  con- 
duct, 155,  156;  F.'s  relations  to 
Sloat,  157-161  ;  F.'s  conduct  as  re- 
lated to  the  English  designs,  168; 
F.  's  interview  with  Stockton,  and 
its  consequences,  177,  182;  F.  at 
San  Diego,  177 ;  personal  good  will 
of  F.  towards  Califomians  after  the 
conquest,  185,  186;  F.  during  the 
revolt  and  re -conquest,  189,  190, 
193-195  ;  quarrel  with  Kearny,  196  ; 
F.  as  popular  authority  for  Sutter's 
title,  470 ;  as  U.  S.  senator  from 
California,  494. 

Frenchmen,  in  the  mines,  see  For- 
eign miners ;  m  the  Vigilance  Com- 
mittee of  San  Francisco,  447,  456. 

Funeral  in  the  mines,  a,  as  witnessed 
by  "  Sliirley,"  347,  348. 

Galvez,  Jo86  de,  12. 
Gambling  in  San  Francisco,  394,  425^ 
436,  437. 


INDEX. 


507 


Gillespie,  Lieutenant  Archibald,  meet- 
ing vvitli  Captain  Frt^mont  at  Kla- 
math Lake,  56  ;  mystery  of  his  mis- 
sion, 57,  58,  87,  sqq. ;  liis  visit  to 
Yerba  Busna  in  June,  1846,  103, 
105-108;  General  Fr6mont  on  G.'s 
mission,  115,  sqq.  ;  G.  brings  but  one 
secret  dispatch,  130-132  ;  circum- 
stances of  his  commission,  145  ;  con- 
duct of,  after  the  conquest,  187- 
189 ;  at  San  Pascual,  192. 

Gold  discovery,  220,  221 ;  effects  of, 
in  general,  summarized,  221,  222 ; 
effects  of,  immediate,  223;  excite- 
ment caused  by,  described,  231-240. 

Gold-mining,  lying  reports  concerning 
early,  circulated,  231-234 ;  history 
and  social  effects  of,  271-376  ;  meth- 
ods of,  in  1848,  284-288,  290-292 ; 
methods  of,  in  1849,  300-302 ;  meth- 
ods of,  in  later  years,  308-313 ;  av- 
erage returns  of,  234,  360.  See 
also  Pan -mining.  Cradle-mining, 
Sluice-mining,  River-bed-mining. 

Golden  Gate,  6,  10. 

Graham,  Isaac,  28. 

Grey,  Wm.,  pseudonym,  cited,  272, 
394. 

Grigsby,  Captain,  70,  71,  83. 

Gunny  Bags,  Fort,  401,  462 

Gutierrez,  Governor,  24. 

Gwin,  W.  M.,  in  the  constitutional 
convention  of  1849,  262,  269;  as 
author  of  Land  Act  of  1851,  483- 
485  ;  in  general  politics,  495,  496. 

Hale,  Rev.  Edward  Everett,  9. 

Hall's  "  History  of  San  Jose  "  cited, 
189,  223. 

Hallock,  Capt.  H.  W.,  services  of, 
in  1848,  49,  258,  note ;  in  constitu- 
tional convention,  268. 

Haro,  the  brothers,  82. 

Hastings,  L.  W.,  208-211. 

"  Herald,"  the  San  Francisco,  attitude 
of,  concerning  King's  assassination, 
439. 

Hetherington,  executed  by  Vigilance 
Committee,  464. 

Hijar,  colony  of,  23,  24. 

Hittell,  John  S.,  on  Bear  Flag  affair, 
cited,  95,  117. 

Hittell,  J.  S.,  "  History  of  San  Fran- 
cisco," cited,  117,  213,  214,  219,  380, 
383,  385,  423,  424,  427,  428, 429,  430, 
432,  438,  448,  458,  464. 

Hittell,  J.  S.,  "Resources  of  Cali- 
fornia," cited,  309. 

Hittell,  Theodore,  95. 

Hopkins,  wounded  by  Judge  Terry, 
462. 

Horn,  Cape,  emigrants  by,  240. 


"  Hounds,"  affair  of  the,  263, 407,  note. 
Howard,    Volney    E.,  as   general   of 

state  militia,  461. 
Hull,  Captain,  205. 
Humboldt  River,  44. 
Hunt,  Rev.  T.  Dwight,  401. 
Hurd,  Cyrus,  Jr.,  333. 
Hyde,  alcalde,  205. 

Ide,  Wm.,  character  of  67  ;  narrative 
of,  68-78  ;  referred  to,  151 ;  false 
proclamation  received  by,  97,  98, 
109. 

Indians,  in  mines,  291,  292 ;  frequent 
massacres  of,  by  early  miners,  363. 

Interregnum,  the,  history  of,  198- 
270 ;  problems  of,  198-213  ;  San 
Francisco  during,  213  -  220  ;  gold 
discovery  during,  220  -  224  ;  new- 
comers during,  225-246 ;  later  con- 
stitutional history  of,  246-257  ;  end 
of,  in  constitutional  convention,  257- 
270 ;  men  of,  their  character,  198  ; 
discontent  of,  200-210  ;  their  con- 
servatism in  1849,  249  :  their  posi- 
tion in  the  constitutional  conven- 
tion, 261,  264,  269. 

Jackson,  Mrs.  H.  H.,  cited,  188. 

Jackson,  town  of,  lynching  affair  at, 
343. 

Jenkins,  hanged  by  the  first  Vigi- 
lance Committee  of  San  Francisco, 
420,  422. 

Jeimy  Liud  Theatre,  performance  ad- 
vertised in,  387  ;  burning  of,  388  ; 
rebuilding  of,  389  ;  sale  of,  to  the 
city,  389. 

Jesuits,  expulsion  of,  from  Lower 
California,  11. 

Johnson,  governor  of  California,  497  ; 
abortive  negotiations  of,  with  the 
Vigilance  Committee  of  1856,  441- 
446. 

Johnson,  Theodore  T.,  cited,  304. 

Jones,  E.  P.,  205. 

Jones,  J.  M.,  "262,  267. 

Jones,  Thomas  Ap  Catesby,  tem- 
porary seizure  of  California  by,  in 
1842,  87. 

Jones,  Wm.  Carey,  482,  483. 

"Jones  and  partners,"  tried  for  theft 
at  Coloma,  319-321. 

Justice,  administration  of,  in  early 
days.    See  Popular  jicstice. 

Kearny,  Gen.  S.  W.,  instructions  of, 
127 ;  arrival  of,  in  California,  191 ; 
at  San  Pascual,  192  ;  with  Stock- 
ton,  192,  195 ;  quarrel  with  Stock- 
ton and  Fremont,  196 ;  authorize* 
sale  of  lots  in  San  Francisco,  214. 


508 


INDEX. 


Kern  River  mines,  excitement  con- 
cerning, 431. 

Ring,  Janiee,  "of  Williyni,"  career 
of,  432-437  ;  cliaracter  of,  432,  433 ; 
founds  the  "  Bulletin,"  433;  work 
of,  434,  435;  discussion  with  the 
gamblers,  43G,  437  ;  shooting  of,  438 ; 
popular  excitement  caused  by  tlie 
deed,  439:  death  of,  4i8;  Edward 
McGowan  on  the  assassination  of, 
449,  450. 

Bong,  James,  "of  William,"  cited, 
255. 

King,  Thomas  Butler,  268. 

King,  Thomas  S.,  as  editor  of  the 
"  Bulletin  "  after  his  brother's  death, 
454. 

Klamath  Lake  Indians,  89. 

"  Know-Nothing  "  party  in  California, 
496,  497. 

La  Perouse,  visit  of,  17. 

Land  Act  of  1851,  483.  See  also  Land 
titles. 

Land  grants,  early,  45,  46. 

Iiand  titles,  early  difficulties  con- 
cerning, 207,  210;  during  the  gold 
period,  467,  sqq. ;  historical  impor- 
tance of  land  question,  467,  468; 
dangers  besetting  the  laud  titles  in 
1849,  468,  469;  laud  troubles  at 
Sacramento  in  1849-50,  469-479; 
doubts  concerning  Sutter's  title, 
471  ;  views  of  tlie  squatters  on 
Sutter's  land,  472-476 ;  squatter 
meeting  in  1849  at  Sacramento,  474, 
476 ;  the  Robinson  squatter  move- 
ment in  1850,  477-479 ;  later  phases 
of  the  land  troubles,  480,  sqq. ; 
classes  of  Califomian  land  claims, 
480-482;  Land  Act  of  1851,  483, 
484  ;  proposed  supplementary  leg- 
islation, 484,  485 ;  land  litigation 
under  act  of  1851,  485-487  ;  disas- 
trous consequences  of  land  litiga- 
tion, 487-491 ;  political  failure  of 
squatter  pai-ty,  493,  494. 

{<arkin,  Thomas  O.,  Itis  position  in 
California  before  1846,  38-40 ;  his 
correspondence  cited,  id. ;  his  char- 
acter and  influence,  39  ;  mentioned, 
95 ;  relation  to  Gillespie,  103  ;  not 
appealed  to  for  information  by 
Fremont  in  June,  1846,  103 :  cited, 
223,  260.  —  Instructions  of,  135- 
138  ;  consequent  intrigues  of,  161- 
166.  See  also  Gillespie  and  Frdmont. 

*  Law  and  Order  "  men,  during  the 
second  Vigilance  Committee  of  San 
Francisco,  446,  458,  459,  462,  463. 
teese,  Mr.,  60. 

{jimantour  claim,  482. 


i  Loker,  Wm.  N.,  97, 109. 
I  "  Long  Tom,"  301,  308,  309. 
I  Los  Aiogeles,    pueblo  of,  founded  a 
1781,14. 
Lynch  law.     See  Popular  justice. 

McAllister,  Mr.  Hall,  412. 

McCarver,  member  of  constitutional 
I      convention,  264,  269. 

McGlashan,  C.  F.,  his  "History  of 
the  Donner  Party  "  cited,  45. 

McGowan,  Edward,  his  difficultiec 
with  the  Vigilance  Committee,  449, 
450  ;  his  "Narrative,"  id. 


McKenzie,  hanged  by  the  first  Vigi- 

•■■     of  r     ~ 

422. 


lance  Committee  of  San  Francisco, 


M;cnamara,  91,  92,  165,  sqq. 

Macnamara  scheme,  165-167. 

Macondray,  Mr.,  410. 

Manila  ships,  11. 

Mariposa,  troubles  at,  with  foreign 
miners,  365. 

Marshall,  as  gold  discoverer,  220,  221, 
223 ;  engages  in  mining  near  Co- 
loma,  291. 

Marysville  steamer,  popular  justice 
on  a,  340. 

Mason,  Colonel,  as  governor  of  Cali- 
fornia, 202,  211,  212  ;  visits  the 
mines,  223,  291 ;  cited  on  methods 
of  mining,  287. 

Meiggs,  Henry,  career  of,  425-431. 

Mendocino,  Cape,  first  seen  by  Fer- 
ralo,  9. 

Merritt,  Captain,  59,  69,  71, 120. 

Mervine,  Captain,  190. 

Methodists  in  San  Francisco,  400, 
401. 

Mexican  grants.  See  Land  grants, 
and  Land  titles. 

Mexican  rule  in  California,  19,  sqq. ; 
begun  in  1822.  19 ;  periods  of,  19, 
20  ;  growth  of,  before  1830,  20,  21 ; 
secularization  of  missions  begiui  bj', 
22;  events  of,  between  1830  and 
1846,  22-30. 

Mexican  War,  relation  of,  to  California 
in  the  cabhiet  plans,  50-52,  84,  153, 
154, 156. 
Mexican  War,  end  of,  224. 
"  Mexicans  "  in  the  niuies.  See  Foreign 

miners,  and  Cali/ornians,  7iative. 
Micheltorena,  Governor,  28,  29 ;  vis- 
ited at  Los  Angeles  by  Jones,  37. 
Miners'  justice.     See  Popular  justice. 
Mining  camps,  orderly  formation  of, 
in  early  days,  279, 283, 304, 305, 307 ; 
instability  of,  285,  286 ;  gradual  de- 

feneration  of,  281, 282, 300, 330-340, 
75 ;  reformation  of,  374,  376 ;  con- 
trast between  northern  and  south* 


INDEX. 


509 


em  camps,  366 ;  typical  experiences 
of  a  mining  camp  in  1851-52,  344- 
356.  See  also  SoHety,  Gold  min- 
ing, Popular  juxtice,  Foreign  min- 
ers, and  Americans  in  California. 

Mission  property,  title  to,  481. 

Missions  (see  also  Franciscans),  sta- 
tistics of  California,  in  1780,  15 ;  In- 
dians at,  16 ;  failure  of,  16 ;  secular- 
ization of,  22,  sqq. ;  secularization 
proposed,  22 ;  carried  on  further,  23- 
25 ;  completed,  30. 

"Missions,  Northern,"  as  name  for 
California,  9. 

Mississippi  Bar,  thief  cruelly  flogged 
at.  in  1851,  334. 

Monterey,  bay  of,  imrecognized  by 
PortoLi  in  1769,  14 ;  Mission  of  San 
Carlos  founded  at,  14. 

Monterey,  towTi  of,  seized  by  Com- 
raodoi-e  Jones  in  1842,  37. 

Montgomery,  Captain,  83,  105 ;  raises 
flag  at  Yerba  Buena,  175. 

Montgomery  Street,  in  San  Francisco, 
381. 

Moore,  B.  F.,  262. 

Moquelunme  Hill,  lynching  affair  at, 
321-323;  reflections  on  this  affair, 
323,  324. 

Moquelumne,  Lower  Bar  of,  scene  at, 
during  the  first  state  election,  306. 

"Mormon  diggings,"  the,  in  1848, 
289-291. 

Mormons  in  California,  197. 

Murphy,  John  M.,  223. 

Nevada,  thief  flogged  at,  340. 

"New  Helvetia,"   Sutter's   title  to, 

470,  471. 
Nicaragua,  235. 
North  and  South,   Americans  from, 

mingled  in  Calif  orxiia,  227-230. 

Oak  Bottom,  affair  of  Easterbrook 
and  Price  at,  329-332. 

Oakland,  squatters  at,  488. 

O'Meara,  his  "  Broderick  and  Gwin  " 
cited,  261,495. 

Oregon,  English  claims  upon,  in  con- 
nection with  California  affairs,  168- 
170. 

Osgood,  Mr.  E.  S.,  cited  in  connection 
with  the  affair  of  February,  1851, 
and  in  connection  with  the  second 
Vigilance  Committee,  414,  415,  442, 
445;  his  personal  connection  with 
these  affairs,  see  id. 

Dtter,  the,  of  Boston,  visit,  17. 

Overland  emigrants,  240-246. 

Padres,  23. 

Page,  Bacon  &  Co.,  failure  of,  431. 


Palmerston,  Lord,  statement  of,  in 
Pariiament,  170,  172,  173. 

Palou,  his  biography  of  Father  Jimi- 
pero  Serra,  15. 

Pan-mining,  282-287. 

Panama,  new-comers  by,  235-240 ;  first 
Americans  at,  235-239. 

"Panama  Star,"  236,  238. 

Partnerships,  mining,  their  close  and 
social  nature,  288;  illustration  of, 
in  1848,  by  the  case  of  the  Brooks 
party,  289,  sqq. ;  darker  aspects  of, 
300;  degree  of  universality  of,  in 
1849,  301,  302 ;  case  of  a  fatal  diffi- 
culty between  partners,  329-332. 

Payran,  Stephen,  419,  420. 

Peujdeh  mcident,  mentioned  for  com- 
parison, 53,  119. 

Peruvians  on  the  way  to  California, 
236-239.     See  also  Foreign  miners. 

Pickett,  C.  E.,  205. 

Pio  Pico,  Governor,  29;  controversy 
with  Castro,  94, 96, 107  ;  legend  con- 
cerning, 173 ;  meeting  with  Castro, 
175 ;  flight  to  Mexico,  180. 

Plaza,  the,  in  San  Francisco,  388,  389, 
392,  420. 

Polk,  President  James  BL  See  Cabi- 
net of  Polk. 

Polk  cabinet.     See  Cabinet  of  Polk. 

Popular  justice,  crises  of,  general  re- 
marks on,  277,  279-282,  421,  465 ;  in 
the  mines,  in  the  earlier  and  more 
orderly  camps,  279,  300,  302,  304, 
305, 307  ;  in  1851  and  the  subsequent 
years  :  general  remarks  on.  313-317  •, 
Mr.  Shinn's  view  of  the  topic,  314, 
315 ;  strictures  on  Ms  view,  316 ;  il- 
lustrations of  the  spirit  of  miners' 
justice  in  1851  and  1852,  317-324: 
unsentimental  character  of  the  min- 
ers' justice,  327, 328 ;  misrepresenta- 
tions current  on  this  point,  326  ;  il- 
lustrations of  popular  justice :  at 
Shasta  in  1851,  329-333;  at  John- 
son's  Bar  in  1852,  333,  334 ;  cruelty 
of  the  miners  on  occasion,  334 ;  the 
morality  of  the  penalties  inflicted 
by  tlie  miners,  335-337 ;  inefficacy 
of  this  popular  justice,  338-344; 
scenes  of  popular  justice,  as  known 
to  "Shirley,"  351,  354,  35;'),  356; 
miners'  justice,  as  applied  to  for- 
eigners in  18.50,  361-364;  the  s^me 
topic  in  later  years,  368 ;  disgrp/^e- 
ful  lynching  of  a  woman  in  1851, 
368-374;  relation  of  lynch  law  to 
the  final  attainment  of  order  in  the 
mmes,  375 ;  in  San  FranciJico :  con- 
trast between  the  condition  of  San 
Francisco  and  that  of  the  mines  as 
to  popular  justice,  407  ;  the  affair  of 


510 


INDEX. 


the  Hounds  in  1849,  407,  note  ;  the 
outbreak  of  February,  1861,  407- 
417 ;  its  causes,  408 ;  scenes  of  Feb- 
ruary 22d,  409,  410;  the  popular 
trial  of  February  23d,  411^10  ;  tran- 
sition to  the  first  of  the  great  Vigi- 
lance Committees,  417  ;  origin  of  the 
committee,  418-420;  work  of  the 
committee,  420-422;  tlie  crisis  of 
May,  1856,  437,  sqq. ;  popular  feel- 
ing upon  King's  death,  439 ;  origin 
of  the  second  great  Vigilance  Com- 
mittee, 440-447 ;  negotiations  with 
Governor  Johnson,  441^46 ;  seizure 
of  Casey  and  Cora  by  the  commit- 
tee, 447;  trial  and  execution  of 
Casey  and  Cora,  451,  452;  general 
dangers  and  duties  of  the  commit- 
tee, 453 ;  its  temptations  from  the 
side  of  its  friends,  454,  455 ;  its  po- 
litical temptations,  455-457;  its 
prisoners,  457  ;  its  enemies  and  their 
efforts,  458-462;  its  arrest  and  re- 
lease of  Terry,  462,  463 ;  its  execu- 
tion of  Brace  and  Hetherington,  and 
its  concluding  acts,  464. 

Portola,  Governor,  13. 

Presbyterians  in  San  Francisco,  401. 

Price,  a  miner,  killed  by  his  partner, 
Easterbrook,  at  Oak  Bottom  in  1851, 
329,  330. 

Prudon,  M.,  60. 

Pueblos  in  California,  foundation  and 
intention  of,  14,  15. 

Rancheros.    See  Cali/omians,  native. 

Reed,  juror  at  the  Downieville  lynch- 
ing of  July  5,  1851,  373. 

Revere,  Lieutenant,  cited,  173,  190. 

Reyes,  Point,  10. 

Rezanof,  visit  of,  to  San  Francisco, 
17. 

Richardson,  General,  U.  S.  marshal, 
shot  by  Cora  m  San  Francisco,  447. 

Riley,  General,  205;  cited,  238;  ad- 
ministration of,  and  views  of  polit- 
ical situation,  246-255 ;  calls  consti- 
tutional convention,  257 ;  surren- 
ders government,  270. 

River-bed-mining,  310-312. 

Robinson,  Alfred,  his  "Life  in  Cali- 
fornia "  cited,  38. 

Robinson,  Dr.  Charles,  as  squatter 
leader  in  1850,  477-479. 

Robinson,  Mr.  H.,  cited,  369. 

Roop,  Isaac,  at  Oak  Bottom  and  Shas- 
ta, 329,  332,  333. 

Rough  and  Ready,  opposition  to  for- 
eign miners  at,  367. 

Routes  to  California,  234-246. 

Royce,  Mrs.  S.  E. ,  statement  of,  cited, 
241-246,  403-406. 


Russians,  first  visit  of,  in  Califomia, 
17 ;  colony  of,  at  Ross,  18. 

Sacramento,  land  troubles  at,  in  1849- 
50,  469-479 ;  attempts  at  popular 
government  in,  in  1&49,  257. 

Sacramento  Valley,  4. 

San  Carlos,  Mission  of,  founded  in 
1770,  14. 

San  Diego  Harbor,  visited  by  Viz- 
caino, 11. 

San  Diego,  Mission  of,  settled  1769,  13. 

San  Francisco,  Bay  of,  not  known  to 
Drake,  10  ;  name  of,  first  applied  to 
bay  south  of  Point  Reyes  by  Cerme- 
non,  10 ;  name  of,  coincidence  with 
Drake's  given  name,  11 ;  entered  by 
Ayala,  14 ;  the  present  bay  discov- 
ered, name  applied  as  at  present, 
14 ;  appearance  in  1849,  380. 

San  Francisco,  city  of,  beginnings,  46, 
47  ;  during  the  interregnum,,  213- 
220 ;  remarks  on  its  situation  and 
plan,  214-219  ;  in  1849,  246 ;  at- 
tempts at  popular  goveriunent  in, 
in  1849,  257 ;  social  importance  of, 
377 ;  external  changes  of,  between 

1848  and  1851,  378-391 ;  appearance 
of,  in  1849, 378-382 ;  rents  in,  during 
1849,  379,  380-382  ;  hotels  of,  in  1849, 
379,  380  ;  begins  to  fill  Yerba  Buena 
Cove,  381,  «o^e/  early  fires  of,   in 

1849  and  1850,  382,  383  ;  commerce 
of,  in  1849-50,  383,  384 ;  fire  of  May 
4,  1851,  385,  386 ;  fire  of  June  22, 
1851,  387-389;  rebuilding  of  the 
city,  389,  390  ;  use  of  wooden  build- 
ings in  the  city,  390  ;  scenes  in  the 
city  in  1851,  390,  391  ;  social  Ufe  of 
the  city  in  the  early  days,  imhealthy 
sides  of,  391-398;  exaggerated  ac- 
counts of,  in  the  "  Annals,  "  summa- 
rized and  criticised,  393-398 ;  womec 
in  San  Francisco,  life  of,  as  falsely 
and  as  truly  reported,  394,  395,  398, 
399,  403-407,  434,  435  ;  churches  in 
the  city,  395,  398,  400-403  ;  popula- 
tion of  the  city  in  early  years  as 
compared  with  that  of  State,  399 ; 
families  in  the  city,  life  of,  403-407, 
434,  435  ;  popular  justice  at,  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1851,  407^17;  first  Vigilance 
Committee  at,  417-422 ;  history  of 
the  city  between  1851  and  1856, 
422-437  ;  the  crisis  of  1856  and  the 
second  Vigilance  Committee,  437- 
465 ;  debt  of  the  city,  386,  431 ; 
partial  repudiation  of  the  debt,  432 ; 
title  to  its  lands,  482. 

San  Francisco,   Mission    of.  founded 

1776,  14. 
San  Gabriel  River,  fight  at,  192,  19a 


INDEX. 


611 


San  Joaquin  River,  discovered,  14. 

San  Joaquin  Valley,  4. 

San  Jos6,  pueblo  of,  founded  in  1777, 
14. 

San  Mateo  Co.,  383. 

San  Pascual,  fight  at,  188,  192. 

San  Pedro,  fight  near,  188, 190. 

San  Rafael,  82. 

Santa  Barbara,  region  of,  first  visited 
by  Cabrillo,  9. 

Schools  in  San  Francisco,  219,  399. 

Scudder,  H,  E.,  cited,  304. 

Secularization  of  missions  proposed 
by  Echeandia,  22 ;  further  progress 
of,  23-25 ;  completion  of,  30. 

Sample,  Dr.,  101,  151 ;  character  of, 
62 ;  his  part  in  and  descriptions  of 
the  Bear  Flag  affair,  63-66,  69,  70 ; 
his  part  in  the  constitutional  con- 
vention, 264,  268,  269. 

Serra,  Junipero,  13  ;  character  of,  15. 

Settlers'  party,  480 ;  later  political 
failure  of,  493. 

Seymovur,  Admiral,  conduct  and  in- 
structions of,  discussed,  167-172. 

Shasta,  popular  justice  at,  in  1851, 
329-333. 

Shattuck,' Judge,  412,  413. 

Shaw,  Pringle,  his  "  Ramblings  in  Cal- 
ifornia "  cited,  367. 

Sherman,  W.  T.,  cited,  202,  203,  441, 
443,  452,  459  ;  as  opponent  of  Vigi- 
lance Committee,  441, 458,  459-461 ; 
at  the  interview  between  Governor 
Johnson  and  Vigilance  Committee 
members,  442-444;  as  general  of 
state  militia,  460. 

Shinn,  Charles  H.,  cited,  273, 279,  286, 
296,  300,  314-316,  337,  340. 

Shinn,  Miss  M.  W.,  99. 

•'  Shirley,"  letters  of,  on  the  mining- 
life,  283, 344-356 ;  character  of  these 
letters  in  general,  344, 345  and  note  ; 
early  experiences  of  "Shirley"  at 
Rich  Bar,  345-349 ;  later  experiences 
at  Indian  Bar,  349-356 ;  the  author's 
real  name,  345;  her  furniture  and 
library  in  the  mines,  350. 

Sierra  Nevada  Mountains,  4,  5. 

Simpson,  H.  I.,  fictitious  author  of 
forged  pamphlet,  231-233. 

Sinclair,  223. 

Sitka,  17. 

Slidell,  mission  of,  to  Mexico  in  1845, 
152,  153  and  note. 

Sloat,  Commodore,  82;  instructions 
of,  84,  85,  125-128 ;  conduct  of,  dur- 
mg  the  conquest,  157-162,  175-177  ; 
proclamation  of,  contrasted  with 
Stockton's,  181,  182 ;  effects  of  his 

.  proclamation  as  remembered  after 
conquest,  202. 


Sluice-mining,  invention  of,  308 ;  early 
description  of,  308,  309 ;  social  im- 
portance of  the  invention,  309,  310. 

Smith,  Jedediah  S.,  35. 

Smith,  Gen.  Persifer  F.,  at  Panama, 
237,  238 ;  relieves  the  emigrants  of 
1849,  244. 

Society,  state  of,  among  the  natives 
before  the  conquest,  30-36 ;  among 
American  residents  before  the  con- 
quest, 38^1 ;  among  the  men  of  the 
interregnum  generally,  198-213 ;  at 
San  Francisco  in  1848,  219 ;  among 
the  new-comers  in  general,  225-234 ; 
among  the  new-comers  on  the  way, 
234-246;  forces  generally  affecting 
it  during  early  days,  272-278 ;  forces 
affecting  it  in  the  mines  in  particu- 
lar, 278-282;  pan  and  cradle  min- 
ing as  social  influences,  282-288 ;  Dr. 
J.  T.  Brooks,  as  witness  on  the  min- 
ing society  of  1848,  289-301 ;  society 
at  the  Mormon  diggings  in  the  early 
summer  of  1848, 290, 291 ;  at  various 
camps,  later  in  1848,  293-298 ;  soci- 
ety in  1849  in  the  mines,  303-307  ;  as 
affected  by  later  forms  of  mining 
industry,  309-313;  as  shown  by 
lynch  law  in  the  years  after  1850  in 
the  mines,  317-324,  327-334 ;  sins  of 
society  in  the  mines,  336;  corrupt 
state  of,  as  induced  by  the  lynching 
habit  in  the  summer  of  1852,  342, 
343 ;  "  Shirley's  "  account  of  a  typi 
cal  mining  society,  344-356 ;  mining 
society,  as  affected  by  foreigners 
and  by  the  popular  feeling  towards 
them,  356-374 ;  improvement  of  so- 
ciety in  later  mining  towns,  374- 
376;  reflections  on  this  improve- 
ment, 375, 376 ;  society  in  San  Fran- 
cisco in  early  days,  as  affected  by 
over-work  and  over-excitement,  391- 
398 ;  conservative  social  forces  in 
San  Francisco,  398-407  ;  social  cor- 
ruption during  the  business  depres- 
sion of  1854-^55,  424-43^;  reawak- 
ening of  social  conscience  in  San 
Francisco,  432-438;  social  condi- 
tion, as  affected  by  the  second  Vig- 
ilance Committee,  453,  462,  465; 
general  social  condition  of  the  State, 
as  affected  by  the  land  litigation, 
486-491 ;  concluding  reflections  on 
the  social  history  of  California,  499- 
501.  See  also  Popular  justice, 
Americans  in  California,  and  Call- 
fornians,  native. 

Sola,  Governor,  19. 

Solis,  revolt  of,  21. 

Sonoma,  taken  possession  of  by  the 
Bear  Flag  men,  60  ;  life  of  the  Bear 


512 


INDEX. 


Flag  men  at,  60-79;  attempts  at 
popular  govermnent  in,  in  1849, 257. 

Sonora,  city  of,  diffiiciilties  with  the 
foreign  mmers  at,  in  1850,  360-364  ; 
thief  flogged  at,  340. 

Sonoran  miners,  attempted  expulsion 
of,  m  1849,  305,  358.  See  also  For- 
eign miners. 

South.     See  North  and  South. 

Spanish  rule  in  CaUfomia,  11-19 ;  end 
of,  in  1822,  19. 

"  Squire,"  the,  at  Indian  Bar  in  1851- 
52,  as  known  to  "  Sliirley,"  350, 355, 
356. 

Statistics,  brief  and  very  general,  of 
State  and  of  San  Francisco,  398, 
399. 

Stevenson's  regiment,  191,  197,  231. 

Stillman,  Dr.,  liis  "  Seeking  the  Golden 
Fleece  "  cited,  235. 

Stockton,  Commodore,  133;  at  Mon- 
terey, 177  ;  proclamation  of,  178 ; 
Tuthill's  criticism  of  the  procla- 
mation, id. ;  sails  for  San  Pedro, 
179 ;  enters  Los  Angeles,  180 ;  sec- 
ond proclamation  of,  180-183; 
speech  of,  on  receiving  news  of  the 
revolt,  190;  campaign  of,  in  the 
south  against  the  revolters,  190- 
193;  quarrel  of,  with  Kearny,  195- 
197 ;  relation  of  his  conduct  to  sub- 
sequent politics  in  California,  203, 
204,250. 

Stockton,  disorder  and  justice  at,  in 
1851,  341,  342;  meeting  at,  to  op- 
pose Foreign  Miners'  Tax,  360,  note. 

Stuart,  the  supposed,  tried,  409-416 ; 
saved  by  the  first  Vigilance  Com- 
mittee, 422 ;  the  real  Stuart,  hanged 
by  the  first  Vigilance  Committee, 
421. 

Sullivan,  "  Yankee,"  dies  in  Vigilance 
Committee  rooms,  457. 

Sutter,  J.  A.,  his  fort  and  settle- 
ment, 40;  his  character  and  posi- 
tion, 41 ;  settlers  with,  42 ;  men- 
tioned, 223 ;  his  title  to  New  Hel- 
vetia questioned  by  squatters,  470- 
473. 

Sutter's  Fort,  state  of  feeling  at,  in 
1846,  101,  107. 

Talbot,  Lieutenant,  190. 

Taylor,  Bayard,  his  "  El  Dorado  " 
cited,  240,  261,  is03-305,  358,  359, 
379,  380. 

Taylor,  President,  administration  of, 
its  influence  in  constitutional  con- 
vention of  1849,  268. 

Taylor,  William  ("Father"),  cited, 
393,  400,  401. 

Tehauntepec,  235. 


Terry,   Judge,  as  opponent  of  Vigi. 

lance  Committee,  460;  affray  with 

Hopkins,    462  ;     confinement     and 

tri£d  by  Vigilance  Committee,  463  ; 

release,  464 ;  kills  Broderick,  496. 
Thayer,     Mr.,  protests     unavailingly 

against  the  Downieville  lynching  of 

July  5,  1851,  371. 
Thornton,    J.   G.,  his  "  Oregon  and 

California  "  cited,  43,  45. 
Torre,  Joaquin  de  la,  78,  79. 
Traders,  American,  in  California  be« 

fore  the  conquest,  31,  34,  38-40. 
Trappers,  American,  in  California,  35, 

36,  40. 
Treaty  of  peace  proclaimed  in  Calif  oiw 

nia,  224. 
Truckee  Caiion,  44. 
Tuthill,  "  History  of  California,"  cited, 

178, 179,  189,  223,  399,  458. 

Vallejo,  General,  28,  33;  imprison- 
ment of,  by  Bear  Flag  men,  60,  sqq.  ; 
behavior  of,  towards  Bear  Flag 
men,  69,  70  ;  legend  concerning  his 
connection  with  a  meeting  at  Mon- 
terey, 173. 

Vallejo,  Salvador,  60. 

Vancouver,  visit  of,  17. 

Van  Ness,  mayor  of  San  Francisco, 
441. 

Ver  Mehr,  Rev.  Dr.,  401. 

Victoria,  Manuel,  Governor,  22. 

Vigilance  Committee  of  San  Francisco, 
first,  417-422  ;  second,  1,  437-465 
For  further  references,  see  under 
Popular  justice. 

Vigilance  Committees.  See  under  Pop- 
tilar  justice,  especially  under  Pop- 
ular  justice  in  San  Francisco. 

Vizcaino,  early  voyage  of,  11. 

Washington  Guards,  the,  409. 

Watson,  Mr.  R.  S.,  cited  concerning 
the  affair  of  February,  1851,  and 
concerning  the  first  Vigilance  Com- 
mittee, 412,  413,  415,  418,  419,  420; 
his  personal  connection  with  these 
matters,  see  id. 

Weber's  Creek,  291. 

Weller,  John  B.,  494. 

Wheeler,  Rev.  O.  C,  401. 

Whittaker,  hanged  by  the  first  Vigi- 
lance Committee  of  San  Francisccv 
422. 

Wierzbicki,  F.  P.,  his  "California" 
(pamphlet)  cited,  301,  302,  311,  378, 
379. 

Willey,  Rev.  Mr.,  cited,  99,  236,  238, 
258. 

WilUams,  Rev.  Albert,  401,  402,  403. 

Women  in  California  in  early  day»; 


INDEX. 


613 


native  Califomian  women  before 
the  conquest,  their  character,  32 ; 
women  at  Yerba  Buena  in  1847, 
214  ;  among  the  new  -  comers  in 
1849,  231,  241-246 ;  at  the  Mormon 
diggings  in  1848,  290,  291 ;  in  the 
mines  in  the  later  summer  of  1848, 
297  ;  women  among  a  company  ex- 
pelled from  Shasta  in  1851,  333  ; 
treatment  of  women  in  the  mines 
generally  in  early  days,  346 ;  "  Shir- 
ley's "  experiences  as  to  the  women 
m  the  mines,  345,  346,  347,  348, 
354 ;  a  woman  hanged  at  Downie- 
ville  in  1851,  368-374 ;  influence  of 
women  for  the  final  triumph  of 
good  order  in  the  mines,  374 ;  wo- 
men ui  San  Francisco,  378 ;  charac- 
ter of,  according  to  the  "Annals," 
33 


394,  395,  397,  398 ;  true  character 
of,  399,  400  ;  family  life  of,  in  early 
days,  403-407  ;  evils  of  their  posi- 
tion in  San  Francisco  in  1865,  434, 
435. 

Woodruff,  jiiror  at  the  Downieville 
lynching  of  July  5,  1851,  373. 

Woodworth,  S.  E.,  419, 

Wool,  General,  459. 

"  World  Encompassed  "  cited,  10. 

Yerba  Buena,  and  Yerba  Buena  Cove. 

See  also  under  San  Francisco,  city 

of. 
Yerba  Buena,  Gillespie  at,  106,  108  ; 

state  of  feelings  at,  in  June,  1846, 

106. 

Zabriskie,  475. 


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